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HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 



LOUISE HEYWOOD REYNOLDS. 



'7 ^ '' 15 186: 1/ 



NEW YORK: 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 

900 Broadway, cor. 20th Street. 



f^'t-^ 



COPYRIGHT, 1882, BY 

ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY. 



NEW YORK: 
EDWARD O. JENKINS, ROBERT RUTTER, 

Printer and Stereoty^er^ Binder^ 

20 North William St. 116 and 118 East 14th Street. 



CONTENTS. 



Take no Thought for To-morrow. . 5 

Bearing the Cross 21 

He is Coming 26 

No Middle Way. 32 

Faith and Works 44 

Not Believing Because not Under- 
standing 53 

Settle it with Jesus 61 

That it might be Fulfilled. ... 69 
Common Sense in Religion. , . , ^6 

Our Responsibility 90 

Seek, Knock, Give 97 

The Parting of the Way. . . .103 
Are We Growing Old ? . . . .109 
Encouragement for the Poor. . .121 

Tired Mothers 132 

Home, Sweet Home 152 



€ah Jh ^jiniigjjt for €n-ranrrnitr. 

TTTE know not one moment of the future. 
^ ^ We may be sitting quietly in our homes, 
and a flash of lightning, or the sudden devel- 
opment of a hidden disease, send us without 
warning into eternity. An accident on a rail- 
road train, or an ocean steamer, a misstep, a 
fire at the dead of night, a hundred calamities 
which are every day sending others suddenly 
to their final home, are as likely to happen to 
us as to them. 

To-day we may have all our loved ones 
about us, to-morrow they may leave us never to 
return. To-day we may be rich — to-morrow 
-poor. To-day we may be in the exuberance 
of health and strength, and to-morrow be laid 
upon a bed of pain and weakness. To-day we 

5 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

may be strong in the use of all our reasoning 
faculties, an asylum may be our home to-mor- 
row. Under the care of our Heavenly Father, 
and thus helpless as regards our future, why 
need we take anxious thought concerning it? 

Whatever we can do to make our lives suc- 
cessful in all things honorable, we are to do. 
We cannot sit down in idleness and expect that 
God will take care of us without any effort on 
our part. He has given us all our faculties, and 
all our energies, and we are accountable for 
the manner in which we use all His gifts ; but 
we cannot use them independently of Him. 
We must have His approval, and His blessing, 
and after we have done our utmost, leave the 
result of our efforts quietly and patiently with 
Him. 

There is much happiness for us if we will 

only take it day by day, as God means we 

should, and not get so bewildered in the fogs 

and mists of life as not to see the beautiful sun- 
6 



TAKE NO THOUGHT FOR TO-MORROW. 

shine beaming all along our path. Trials and 
disappointments must come, but the more pa- 
tient we are, the lighter these will be ; and the 
longer we live, the more will they seem like the 
insect which lights upon us, and which we 
brush aside — an insignificant and but momen- 
tary annoyance. 

Life is short. Why not, then, make the best 
possible use of it to-day "> When shall we be 
content.? When, if not now, live truly and 
earnestly, trusting God implicitly, and holding 
sweet and restful communion with Him } 

Much that might be sweet and helpful in our 
lives is overlooked, because we are constantly 
anticipating some fancied greater blessing than 
we now possess, and in our anxious care for the 
morrow, we fail to enjoy the blessings of to- 
day. In this manner all our days are full of 
unrest, and we spend our whole life anticipat- 
ing, but not realizing ; for, as soon as we have 
reached a desired point, we see beyond us still 

7 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

something to reach after, which we believe to 
be necessary to our comfort or happiness. 
The truth is that if we have not the spirit of 
contentment to-day, we are never likely to have 
it. If we do not exhaust the resources of to- 
day, but pass them by unused, we are likely to 
do the same to-morrow, thus making all our 
days barren of joy and of the satisfaction 
which comes from the assurance in our hearts 
that we have made the most of the day's gifts 

to us. 

The feeling of unrest and dissatisfaction 
which takes possession of so many persons, 
whatever their circumstances and surround- 
ings, and follows them all through life, is 
something startling. Now and then we find 
one who is comparatively at rest, but the ma- 
jority, even, of those who profess to trust God 
implicitly, are restless and dissatisfied. 

What is the reason for this contradictory 
condition ? Many Christians have a sort of in- 



TAKE NO THOUGHT FOR TO-MORROW, 

definite belief that God is their Father, and that 
He loves them, and will take care of them in a 
general way. That He has a special and daily 
supervision of their lives does not enter into 
their thoughts, even when they pray '^ Give us 
this day our daily bread." With this indis- 
tinct idea of God's relation to them, and their 
relation to Him, their faith is weak and waver- 
ing, and as no one can be satisfied with any- 
thing short of complete faith in a personal 
Saviour, they are not satisfied, neither do they 
appropriate to themselves the promised daily 
grace for daily needs. The promises of the 
Bible are not only for nations, but for the indi- 
vidual. God does not mock us in reaching 
out His hand to lead us ; neither does He 
stand ready to give us an occasional lift over 
difficult places, but hourly is His loving and 
helping hand extended, and if we would only 
grasp it and never let go, how many mistakes 
we might avoid. He is our God to-day. All 

9 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

that we need for to-day comes from His boun- 
tiful hand, according to the measure of our 
faith. 

Perfect faith in God would so transform our 
lives that we should hardly know ourselves. 
To feel each morning that we are held in the 
hollow of His hand who controls the silver and 
gold, the food and the raiment, the good and 
the evil, to realize that God goes behind us to 
correct our mistakes, that He is all about us, 
that nothing can touch us without His permis- 
sion, and that He permits nothing which is not 
for our highest good, would bring a peace into 
our hearts — a radiance into our faces which 
could not be mistaken. Every day would 
bring its own compensations, its own complete- 
ness, and we would not need to anticipate or 
look forward. 

How can any one doubt that God means us 
to live in this way, taking no anxious thought 
for the morrow, appreciating and making the 

ID 



TAKE NO THOUGHT FOR TO-MORROW. 

most of the blessings of to-day, and enduring 
its annoyances with sweet submission to His 
will, who knows how much trial we need, who 
is moulding us daily into the image of His Son. 
How happy are we if we can say sincerely 
every morning, " O, Lord, I am Thine to-day ; 
use me as Thou wilt, and make my will in per- 
fect harmony with Thy will, that Jesus may be 
glorified in me to-day ! " 

What have we to do with the morrow. The 
present moment is all that we can with certain- 
ty call our own. If we do not grasp this mo- 
ment and use it, it is ours no longer. It will 
never come back to us. And how wise is the 
arrangement, take no thought for the future, in 
order that we may give our whole thought and 
effort to the present, that we may extract all 
the good, all the strength, all the power from 
to-day, and pass it by a well-used day, with no 
desire to recall it. One day at a time is all we 
can master. Coleridge says that in to-day al- 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

ready walks to-morrow. But that is man's 
perversion. God has separated to-day from 
to-morrow by the darkness of the night, that 
we may not be overtaxed. He has made 
circles of the days and nights, each one com- 
plete, and round and full ; one half for work 
and happiness, the other half for repose. He 
holds us in the hollow of His hand from morn- 
ing until night, and from night until morning, 
and all we have to take thought about is the 
work He gives us to do, and the blessings He 
gives 'us to enjoy. If we do well each day's 
work, the future will be well provided for. He 
takes care of that, and our eternal future He 
provides for at the beginning. " Seek first the 
kingdom of God." Then how secure we are. 
How completely we can rest in Him as we per- 
form our tasks. How full we can fill the mo- 
ments with love and its outgrowth. How pa- 
tient we can be under necessary ills. What a 
warm light we may shed all through our 

12 



TAKE NO THOUGHT FOR TO-MORROW, 

homes, in society, in business circles, every- 
where. 

It is true that much of the work of the pres- 
ent must have reference to the future. The farm- 
er must prepare the ground and sow the seed ; 
but while sowing the seed he need not take 
upon himself the burden of the harvest. 

There are a thousand possibilities thrusting 
themselves in the face of all to give them anx- 
ious care for the future. Sow the seed and 
trust. Do the day's work, whether it be for 
present need or for the winter of life, in hope. 

Our blessed Lord knew what was in man ; 
that he would take upon himself burdens hard 
to bear, and which would imperil his true man- 
hood. He knew the race for all time, and that 
in the determination to lay up treasures on 
earth, men would become more and more ab- 
sorbed in the present, or become possessed by 
the evil spirit of accumulation. He knew the 
greed, the selfishness, the littleness of men, if 

13 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

left to themselves, and to put a check upon 
them, and to reveal a better way, He said, 
"Take no thought for the morrow.'* 

And how thankful we should be that we 
have only to-day's work to do, its trials to en- 
dure. Thankful, too, that we may have all the 
pleasant things of to-day, all the joys, all the 
love, the companionship, the tenderness and 
sympathy at our command, knowing that to- 
morrow will bring its own good as well as evil. 

How many, as if not satisfied with the real 
troubles of the present, anticipate future 
trials. How senseless, when the future is as 
blank to us as possible, and things rarely hap- 
pen just as we expect. It is of little use, also, 
to make plans far into the future, for we are 
always governed by circumstances, and these 
we cannot anticipate. 

We wear ourselves out fretting about the fut- 
ure. We lose to-day's joys in looking for the 
future greater joy. We throw away good op- 
14 



TAKE NO THOUGHT FOR TO-MORROW, 

portunities in looking for better ones. We 
withhold from our best friends the small roses 
it is in our power to give, in the hope some 
day of scattering roses everywhere. We with- 
hold the dollar from charity, looking forward to 
the time when we shall be able to give a hun- 
dred instead. We fail to enjoy our small 
houses and modest comforts, in thinking of 
future mansions. We make to-day something 
to be endured and gotten through with some- 
how, while all the really good things are in the 
future. 

Oh, cast out from your life this haunting 
phantom of to-morrow. It is unworthy of you 
to let it follow you so closely, making your life 
a troubled, perhaps a wretched, anxious exist- 
ence. 

There are pearls dropping alL about you to- 
day. Will you trample them underfoot while 
looking for diamonds.^ There are fragrant 
lilies and roses blooming for you now. Will 

IS 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

you pass them by unheeded, while seeking for 
rarer flowers which bloom not oftener than 
once in a century ? Be not so unwise. Live 
in to-day. . Enjoy present good. You will thus 
find a satisfaction in living, — thus be' able to 
make wise use of your powers, — thus with your 
present resources be able to fill up the day to 
completeness. Your life will become tranquil. 
The sharp and anxious lines disappear from 
your face. Your nerves will be stronger, and 
restfulness will mark all your movements. You 
will be less avaricious. And you will be brave ; 
for who cannot be brave for to-day.? And 
fearless ; who cannot trust God for to-day .? 
And loving ; who cannot be magnanimous for 
one day.? And tender; who cannot be tender 
to the little ones, to the weak ones, to the less 
favored ones for one day .? And pure ; who 
cannot be washed in the morning at the foun- 
tain, and be pure all the day .? 

Oh, glorious life to live — this leaving all the 
i6 



TAKE NO THOUGHT FOR TO-MORROW, ^ 

unknown future with God whose it is, and 
living one day at a time, doing the work given 
us to do cheerfully and well, even though it 
be of the humblest, and always trusting God. 
What more do we actually need than daily 
bread ? And if we do each day our duty to 
God, to our fellow-men, and tc ourselves, 
what better preparation can we ever make 
for the long to-morrow of the soul, which in 
heaven will be as one eternal to-day ? 

To-morrow is like the rainbow which, in 
our childhood, we thought we could touch by 
simply running a short distance, but which, to 
our dismay, we found to recede as rapidly 
as w^ advanced ; or like the horizon, which 
we imagined our steps could easily reach, and 
w^e be able to touch the sunset glory gilding 
it. To-morrow we never see. To-day we 
hold in a strong grasp. Use it ere it pass 
away. Time whirls rapidly on. All the to- 
morrows will be to-days, then yesterdays, and 

2 17 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

pass quickly far away into the past till cen- 
turies hide them from all the living. Time is 
for us to use. If we waste it, anticipating 
future good or future ill, we lose to-day and 
all the days as they go on, till our last day will 
find us barren and unlovely. • 

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. 
Sufficient also unto the day is the good there- 
of, if we will only open our eyes to see it. 
How many of us go through this world as 
blind as bats, and call it a vale of tears ! 
There is reason for tears, surely ; but there 
is reason also for rejoicing. Open your eyes 
to each day's opportunities. Think not of 
what will come to you in the future, but 'what 
is yours now. Think not of what you will do 
in the future, but what you can do now. Think 
of your present blessings. Thank God for 
them, and appreciate them the more. They 
are daily bread. Does it rain to-day ? Is it 

dark and gloomy .^ That is all right ; there 
i8 



TAKE NO THOUGHT FOR TO-MORROW, 

must be some stormy days. To-morrow the 
cloud will have a silver lining or disappear 
entirely. Does the sun shine to-day .? Enjoy 
the sunshine. To-morrow may be bright also, 
or you may pass into greater brightness. 

Are you well ? Enjoy your health and use 
it to the best advantage. Are you ill? Then 
to-day is a day in which to be patient and 
endure cheerfully. Are you free from trouble .? 
Then it is a thanksgiving-day. Are you carr}^- 
ing heavy burdens for yourself or others 1 
Then it is a day for special looking to God, 
and the rolling off of your burdens at the foot 
of the cross. Whatever the day brings to you, 
God comes with all its gifts in the person of 
His Son and in the office of the Holy Spirit. 
In the presence of Jesus the darkest day w^ill be 
illuminated. By the indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit, all the daily toil and trouble will be 
sanctified ; and using each day well, improv- 
ing every moment to some good end, how rich 

19 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

we may becorae as the days go on, and what 
fruit we may bear to the glory and honor of 
our Heavenly Father, who fills the measure of 
our days to completeness so that we need not 
trespass upon to-morrow. 

God wishes us to feed on daily bread, with 
no questioning as to whether to-morrow's food 
will be more or less palatabk than that which 
we have to-day. To-day's blessings are ours ; 
the rest are God's, to give or to withhold as 
seemeth good in His sight. To-day's waiting 
and loss are ours, and we are to wait patiently 
and to lose bravely. To-morrow's trials may 
be quite unlike those of to-day, and there are 
some days which are all joy. Who cannot be 
patient and cheerful for one day ? Who can- 
not rest so firmly on the Rock, our true founda- 
tion, for one day, as not to be moved, whatever 
may happen to vex or annoy } It is only one 
by one, day by day. Give us, O Lord, this day 

our daily bread. 
20 



foum^ tjif €xnm. 



"TXTHO can imagine for one moment what 
^ ^ our Lord endured for us ? The 
cross He bore on Calvary was not His only- 
cross. No doubt many crosses pressed heavily 
upon Him even from His childhood. 

He was unlike other children. Their rough 
and uncultivated ways must have caused His 
gentle and sensitive nature to shrink within it- 
self. Their inclination for wrong-doing must 
have given Him pain, and His gentle remon- 
strances and disapproval of their acts were, no 
doubt, often misconstrued. 

One of His life-long trials must have been 
the constant realization that He was alone. 
Who could understand Him ? Who could sym- 
pathize with Him ? Upon whose tender human 

21 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

heart could He lay His weary head and rest ? 
His position was singular. Never since the 
world began had any one stood in His place, 
suspended, as it were, between heaven and 
earth, between ages past and ages to come, 
neither wholly human, nor yet wholly divine, the 
incarnate Son of God, lifted up before the gaze 
of all humanity, first by symbols, then in His 
own body, that whosoever believed in Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

Singular, indeed, was the heavy cross He 
bore, upon which was laid the sins of all the 
ages, from the creation of the world to the end 
of time. No doubt the wooden cross which 
was placed upon Him, and to which He was 
nailed at the last, was a symbol of all that He 
had borne and suffered, from the moment when 
He fully realized His position and His mission 
until that time; and His agony at Gethsemane, 
and His torture upon the cross but feeble ex- 
pressions of what He really suffered for our re- 

22 



BEARING THE CROSS. 

demption. It is not strange that in intense agony 
He prayed that the cup might pass. None of us 
can ever know the mystery of that bitter cup. 
We can only in part divine it, and approach 
with holy reverence into the presence of the 
Supreme suffermg which called forth such a 
prayer from the Patient One, the Divine One, 
the Son of God, and hear with holy reverence 
His expressions of deepest humility and sweet- 
est submission, notwithstanding the terrible or- 
deal — " Not my will, but Thine be done.'* 

There are many hours in the life of every 
one of us when we feel that our cup is full to 
overflowing, that it is too bitter, that we can- 
not drink it. There are crosses fastened to our 
hearts with nails that pierce and lacerate, and 
we shrink from them and beg and plead to 
have them removed. But, as with Jesus, there 
are often reasons why the crosses should re- 
main. God has a work to be done by them 
which nothing else could do, and they will be 

23 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

lightened or removed only when His purpose is 
accomplished. There are crosses, also, which 
are light and so easy to bear that we do not 
think of seeking the help of Jesus in bearing 
them, and they fret and irritate, and make us 
impatient and unlovely. There is no cross, be 
it light or heavy, which He will not illuminate 
for us, if we bear it in sweetness and humility, 
following Him. 

It is not strange that we, too, shrink from 
bearing the cross, if we see only the earthly 
side of it, upon which is written in blood-red 
characters, "The Reproach of the World," 
*^ Separation from Friends," "Toil and Weari- 
ness," " Temptation and Sorrow." But if we 
keep in view the heavenward side, we may take 
courage, for there w^e find in letters of gold, 
"Peace unutterable," " Life everlasting," "A 
home in the Heart of Jesus." 

" ^ Do not choose thy crosses, but take those 

which God gives thee, 
24 



BEARING THE CROSS. 

" ' In the gift of my cross beware of choosing, 
for I know better than thou what thou canst 
endure. 

" ^ Thou must not drag thy cross, but bear it. 
Thou must not blush because of it, but glory 
in it. 

" ' When the burden of my holy cross terrifies 
thee, it is the want of love which renders it 
heavy. 

" ' Thou must not bear the cross with osten- 
tation, but simply upon the shoulder. 

" ^ Under the yoke of my cross bend thy will 
in bearing this burden with humility/ " 



1b is (C^nming. 

"T"ESUS comes not alone to call us home, but 
^ every day, with many messages of love 
and warning. He comes at an hour when we 
think not, knocking at the door of our homes, 
knocking at the door of our hearts, and be- 
cause we are not ready, and do not hear Him, 
or, if we hear, are ashamed to admit Him, He, 
grieving, turns away to come next time in chas- 
tisement, and spares not w^hatever is needful 
for our highest good, that not one of His little 
ones may perish. How often He might come 
to us in anger. How often we weary His pa- 
tience. How w^e love things which He hates, 
and from which He is trying to redeem us. 
Could w^e quietly analyze ourselves from the 

standpoint from which He looks at us, each 
26 



HE IS COMING, 



day would bring many humiliating proofs of the 
need of His coming with chastening hands, 
with loving, pierced hands, outstretched to save 
us. 

He comes to us in physical suffering. There 
are days in the life of each one when every 
nerve and fibre thrills with pain ; when the 
head throbs as if it would burst, and we find it 
difficult or utterly impossible to think of any- 
thing but our own intense suffering, and we can 
only hold still and brace ourselves to endure. 
Need we reproach ourselves if at such times 
we cannot pray, that we cannot even think 
clearly of God, that pain holds us in subjec- 
tion with an iron hand. Ah, then, we can 
only lie in the arms of Divine Pity, as a sick 
child lies in its mother's arms, unconscious of 
the tender, yearning love surrounding and hold- 
ing us. But as everything which comes from God 
brings with it some brightness from the throne 
itself, if in these hours of seclusion we can gain 

27 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

mastery enough over ourselves to realize that 
this, also, is God-given, we may see ourselves 
surrounded by a Divine brightness, even by 
Jesus Himself, who cannot remain afar off when 
His beloved ones suffer ; and this wonderful 
revelation will help us much towards sweetness 
and patience, and final victory over the pain 
itself. We need to say continually, " This is of 
God. This comes from Him. I can bear it, 
because it is His will.*' 

Oh, if we could but see every day, in all the 
conditions of life, just how the Saviour comes 
to us ! How He wards off unseen dangers, 
and puts Himself beneath us to make for us a 
sure foundation, knowing far better than we 
can know, that it is only those things which 
are built upon the Rock which will endure. 
That any beauty or any strength built upon 
a less secure foundation must eventually prove 
a deformity or weakness. That however high 
and imposing the battlements of the human 
28 



HE IS COMING. 

soul may be, they cannot withstand the shocks, 
the underminings of the terrible influences of 
the world, unless they are built upon the Rock 
Christ Jesus. Sometimes we catch a glimpse of 
Him in the cloud in which He is enveloped, but 
oftener in our sins and selfishness we do not know 
that He is in the disappointment, in the shadow, 
in the causes for worry and anxiety, which so 
often come to us ; and b*ecause we worry or 
repine under His easy yoke, and are restless 
under His light burden, we lose the blessing of 
His sustaining and joy-giving presence. 

How sadly He comes to us when He sees it 
necessary to take from us our dearly beloved 
ones. And yet how He pities us — how He 
takes us in His arms and hushes us, as a mother 
hushes a hurt child. And how often we 
grieve Him by our indifference, and when He 
finds us sleeping. *^ Could ye not watch with 
me one hour.^ '' 

He comes in the still small voice, warning 

29 



I 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

US that the enemy is at hand, beseeching us to 
put on the whole armor of God, the girdle of 
truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the san- 
dals of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, 
the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the 
Spirit. 

He comes in the thunder-peal of misfortune, 
to rescue us from laying up our treasures on 
earth, for who but He can know the full value 
of treasures laid up in heaven ? 

And He will come at an hour when we 
think not, to gather in the harvest. Shall we 
have nothing to offer Him then but tares 1 

And He will come at a time when we think 
not, to judge the living and the dead. Who of 
us will be able to abide that coming ? Who of 
us but those who appear before Him in raiment 
white and shining, bearing on high a cross 
stained with His heart's blood .'^ Who but the 
blood-bought throng will rejoice at that com- 
ing ? To those who are redeemed it will be a 
30 



HE IS COMING. 

day of glory, and honor, and joy unspeakable. 
To those who are not redeemed, it will be 
a day of remorse and anguish unutterable. 

There is no gainsaying this. If anything is 
true this is true. If there is any salvation for 
us, it is in our Lord Jesus Christ. And, oh 
you who are not already w^ashed in the blood 
of the Lamb, look to yourselves. There is no 
time to lose. This night your souls may be 
required of you. 

^' Watch ye, therefore,' for ye know not when 
the master of the house cometh, at even, or at 
midnight ; or at the cock-crowing, or in the 
morning ; lest, coming suddenly, he find you 
sleeping/* 

^^ Be ye, therefore, ready also ; for the Son 
of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not." 

31 



^* T TE that is not for me is against me, and 
he that gathereth not with me scat- 
tereth abroad" 

Can anything be plainer than this from the 
lips of the Son of God ? 

There are two powers reigning on the earth, 
and one or the other must control us. We are 
either serving God or Satan. There is no 
more subtle snare that the prince of evil throws 
around his victims than that of the middle 
way. He is always trying to make them be- 
lieve that between God's path and his path 
there is a broad highway in which they may 
walk at their ease, not troubling themselves as 
to whether they are right or wrong, so long as 
they have a choice of good things from the 
32 



NO MIDDLE WA V. 

trees overhanging this highway, and from 
which they can pluck the sweetest fruits with- 
out discrimination as to whether they grow on 
the right hand or on the left. 

There are multitudes of people who are thus 
led blindly on and know not who is leading 
them, and who would consider it an insult if 
you should even gently hint that they are not 
in the way of safety. The web thrown about 
them is delicate, its texture of pleasing colors, 
and they do not feel it tightening closer and 
closer around them. They-are not conscious 
of danger. If you whisper to them of it they 
laugh at your fears, and go on gayly to a final 
hopeless awakening to their real position. 

Many enjoy the pleasures of sin who do not 
acknowledge their master. They imagine they 
can break aw^ay from the service of God with- 
out entering any other service. They think 
they are free. Oh, how great is their mistake ! 
We are never free till we are born into God's 
3 33 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 



kingdom ; then, indeed, are we free-born, and 
no power can take away from us our birth- 
right. 

Another snare which Satan lays for those 
whom he desires to possess, is to conceal him- 
self behind superstition, and make them be- 
lieve that he is only a myth, a fabulous creat- 
ure invented to frighten simple-minded people. 

It is true that we cannot see him, nor hear 
him, nor touch him, he Being a spirit, but we 
have proof enough of his existence in the 
havoc he has made in the w^orld, which with- 
out him would be to this day a paradise. He 
is a liar in very essence, and many are deceived 
by him, and led on step by step to destruction. 
For this reason God has drawn fixed and in- 
delible lines between right and wrong. Do not 
try to obliterate them ; you cannot. There are 
no crooked paths of God's making ; none 
which lean just a little toward the wrong. 
Out of God's path, you are in Satan's path. 
34 



NO MIDDLE WA Y. 

There is no broad road nor even a footpath 
between them. 

Those things which are of the most im- 
portance to us are by twos and not by threes. 
Good and evil, sin and holiness, life and 
death, God and Satan, heaven and hell. 
We have it in our power to choose one of 
these, but not to create a third. Either we 
are Christians or not Christians. Either we 
are the friends of God or His enemies. 
The paths in this world which lead on to 
the next are already marked out, and we are 
either in the road to sin or holiness. If we 
think we are in a path between the two, we 
deceive ourselves. 

Some think it makes no difference in which 
path we walk — that a loving Creator will 
bring every one out right somehow at last. 
Do you think that the Son of God and King 
of Heaven would have left His throne to come 
to this world to take upon Himself the trial of 

35 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

being human, to endure a life of poverty, suf- 
fering, and hard labor, and die a disgraceful 
death upon the cross if it made no difference ? 
— if there be a middle way between right and 
wrong in which multitudes may safely walk ? 

Tli^re are few who will not admit that it is 
our highest duty and for our highest good to 
love and obey God ; but many seem to think 
the teachings of the Bible, which is His re- 
vealed will to us, are meant for others than 
themselves. They are good enough now. They 
do not need a Saviour. If they do the best 
they know, God will not reject them. How 
can any one do the best he knows and still 
reject God's Word 1 And where in that Word 
does God suggest a compromise between good 
and evil ? On the contrary, the contrasts be- 
tween right and wrong, between the position 
of the righteous and the wicked, are in His 
Word everywhere strongly marked. 

God has left no escape from the thunderings 



NO MIDDLE WA V. 

of His anger but through faith in His Son. 
This way He has provided for us. It is His 
way. We might have suggested some other, 
but our plans are as nothing before His plans. 
His law is perfect, His testimonies are sure. 
Who shall gainsay them ? Who shall so blas- 
pheme God as to say, " My way is better than 
Thy way ? " Yet how many do this in deed 
if not !n word ; in thought if not in deed. 

How can men call God severe for drawing 
lines so straight and even when they go astray 
so easily ? How could He be a perfect Gover- 
nor of the world and do otherwise ? 

"Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine 
eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the 
path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be estab- 
lished. Turn not to the right hand nor to the 
left ; remove thy feet from evil.'* 

And oh, young man or young woman, who- 
ever you are, high or low, rich or poor, known 
or unknown, look the truth fearlessly in the 

37 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

face, and deal with things as they are, not with 
things as you would like to have them, and 
direct your life accordingly. Be not deceived 
by false appearances. We have to (ieal with 
real things ; and life is not all beauty and 
poetry. Arm yourself for a fight with wrong 
and injustice and deceit. These things are in 
the world, and we have to meet them. The 
evil one is their originator. Meet them de- 
fiantly with God and truth on your side. Lean 
always toward God, and you will pass through 
lifers ills unharmed. Lean only a little toward 
Satan, and you are in imminent danger. You 
must do one or the other of these, for there is 
no indifferent middle path. 

The idea of being in the service of such a 
power as Satan is too repulsive for men to 
accept, and for this reason they do not realize 
nor acknowledge that they are in his service, 
neither will they take sides with God. But it 
is impossible to serve God a little, and serve 

38 



NO MIDDLE WA V, 

Satan a little. How vain to attempt it. Have 
the manliness, at least, to show your colors. 
If you have lived so long without being called 
upon to determine your position, find out at 
once where you stand. If you are not for 
God, you are for the evil one. Does it humil- 
iate you to think of it ? Do you say, " Im- 
possible ! " It is not only possible, but the 
living truth. Does it startle you ? It may 
well startle you. 

Perhaps you have never thought of it in this 
way before ; and this is one proof, if you are 
not for Christ, that you are in the hands of 
your mortal enemy. He has lulled you to 
sleep, and left you in quiet purposely. Wake 
up ! Rouse yourself to the utmost ! He has 
breathed upon you his poisonous breath ! 
Break away from him ! Trust him and your- 
self no longer ! Look to God ! He alone is 
worthy your confidence and service. He alone 
can help you on to everlasting glory and honor. 

39 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

How can you take a black-hearted monster, 
the prince of devils, for your guide ? Flee for 
your life to the Lamb of God who taketh away 
the sins of the world. Ashamed to come ! 
He bids you come and wash in His blood and 
be made clean that you may follow Him in 
the path to glory. Will you come } 

Oh, how blind you are if you persistently 
reject Him ; if you grow to be old and still 
reject Him ; if you call Him " Lord, Lord," 
and yet do not keep His sayings, but build 
your foundations upon the sand, to be thrown 
down in that day when nothing will stand 
which is not built upon the Rock of Ages. 

Service is joy and life a grand victory if we 
are in the service of God. How absurd to try 
to free ourselves from Him. Helpless in His 
sight as little children are in our sight, way- 
ward and rebellious toward Him as children 
are to us, how He must pity us. And O, how He 
must love us to bear patiently so long with our 
40 



NO MIDDLE WA V. 

indifference to Him and to His dear Son, still 
hoping to save us from eternal death. Then 
look to yourselves at once. Lose not a mo- 
ment. Flee to Jesus Christ and let Him 
clothe you in His own righteousness. 

Be not ashamed to put on that spotless robe, 
for if you are ashamed to confess Him before 
men, then, indeed, will He have reason to be 
ashamed of you, and to ignore you in that day 
when He cometh to judge the world. Trust 
God, and be quiet in His hands. In Him all 
strife ceases, all anxiety is banished. From 
His infinite knowledge He will teach you all 
you need to know in this world, and the rest 
He will teach you in the upper kingdom. 

It may be you shrink from entering the 
narrow path. The path of righteousness is 
narrow only in comparison with the broad, be- 
cause the much-frequented path of sin. It is 
wide enough for all to walk therein who will. 
It lies through peaceful valleys, and beside 

41 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

Still waters. The fruit of the land is sweet to 
the taste, and refreshing to all who eat of it. 
Jesus walks in the midst of it, and His ban- 
ner of love overshadows all. It is in the broad 
path that everything unlovely is to be found. 

It may be you are one of those who have al- 
ready entered the narrow path, but are so far 
from your guide that you are frequently straying 
and losing the way, and so to you the path seems 
difficult. Keep close to Jesus, then your Hfe 
will be in harmony with God's will, and what 
otherwise might annoy you or make you afraid, 
you will leave to Him whose wisdom is infinite, 
and who sees the end from the beginning, and 
so your path will grow brighter and brighter until 
the perfect day when you will see the King in 
His glory. 

To be for God, to have His protecting, fatherly 

care, to have Omniscience and Omnipotence on 

your side, and Infinite Love, how glorious ! 

When Omniscience and Omnipotence were em- 

42 



NO MIDDLE WA V. 

bodied in humanity that heaven might touch the 
earth and transfigure it, what glory and honor 
were bestowed upon us that we were counted 
worthy the sacrifice which elicited the wonder 
and admiration of all heaven, and which might 
well cause all heaven and earth to bow in adora- 
tion before Him, crying, '^ Worthy is the Lamb 
that was slain to receive power, and riches, and 
wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and 
blessing." " Blessing, and honor, and glory, and 
power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and unto the Lamb forever and ever." 

43 



/iiitli nnh With. 

WE are always asking something of our 
Heavenly Father, as though we were always 
hungry and in need, and think it strange that so 
much praying does not bring the desired answer 
to our prayers. Are not many of our petitions 
faithless? And is not God's answer to every 
prayer, *'As your faith is, so be it unto you" ? 

No doubt there are prayers offered every day, 
by earnest Christians, the answers to which would 
make them dumb with astonishment. We pray 
too often into the air, and there is no warmth of 
love, no heart in such prayers. They reach no 
farther than the atmosphere in which the vibra- 
tions of sound lose themselves. They are not 
the prayers of faith. 
44 



FAITH AND WORKS, 

We pray that God will take care of the poor, 
but do not help the answering of our prayer by 
our works. We pray, ^^Abide with me, O Lord"; 
but we do not believe, even while we are pray- 
ing, that He will abide with us. We pray, *' Give 
us this day our daily bread," but do not believe 
He will give it to us ; for how we fret and worry 
over that same daily bread ! 

* Ask and it shall be given you," is true of 
everything which it is best for us to have. If 
God denies us anything it is in the same spirit in 
which we deny our children many things. And 
if our prayers are not always answered just as 
we wish, we need not think that they are un- 
heard by God. The feeblest uplifting of the 
heart to Him is noticed and considered. Why 
not then pray in faith that God will answer un- 
less there is a good reason why our request 
should be denied. 

Do we not pray too much and praise too little ? 
While we are admonished to pray without ceasing, 

45 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

are we not also commanded to rejoice alway? 
Should not praying and rejoicing accompany 
each other ? Should not praise precede or fol- 
low every prayer ? And does it not often happen 
that our cup of blessing is so full that our 
prayers will turn to praise ? 

Why be always hungry, and poor, and naked, 
when if we are hungry, it is because we only 
taste the bread of life and then return to our 
common fare ; if we are naked, it is because we 
will not put on the robes of righteousness offered 
to us by Jesus ; if we are thirsty, it is because 
we only sip at the water of life instead of taking 
full draughts at the fountain. Why do we sit in 
our poverty crying, ^^ Oh, Father, I am poor and 
needy, clothe and feed me ; I am a poor, miser- 
able sinner, save me ; I am falling at every step, 
Oh, lead me " ! And still the same cry day 
a''ter day, turning a deaf ear to the answering 
of our Father : ^' I give thee bread, eat and 
hunger no more. I clothe thee, put on these 
46 



FAITH AND WORKS, 

white robes. I pardon all thy sins, go and sin 
no more. Take my hand in thine, and thou 
shalt never more walk alone." 

Why not take God at His word ? He hears 
the prayer even before we utter it, and is more 
ready to give good gifts to us than we think. 
Under the shadow of His wings, there is rest 
and peace. We are not beggars at His gates, 
but heirs of His kingdom, and with light hearts 
and radiant faces we may go singing towards our 
home. 

God blesses us wonderfully, even when our 
faith is like a grain of sand. What may He not 
do for us when we rely upon Him with the strong 
confidence of children. With such faith, good 
works almost without limit would naturally follow, 
and these good works would begin in our own 
hearts, and in our daily living, for thus and 
thus only would we be prepared to extend our 
works beyond ourselves. Faith and pure living 
are inseparable. True religion is undefiled. If 

47 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

men who profess to be religious are not so, it is 
not that religion itself is wanting in any good ele- 
ment, but that they fall short of the standard 
raised on high that all may see it, even Jesus 
Christ. 

How dare one call himself a Christian who is 
not Christ- like ? How can he live in conformity 
to the world, and give his neighbors occasion to 
charge him with dishonorable conduct and little 
meannesses which a noble man of the world 
would scorn. A true Christian is God-like. A 
God-like man towers so far above his fellow-men 
that they cannot fail to acknowledge his superior- 
ity. Alas that there are so many who are Chris- 
tians only in name. And that so many who might 
shine as stars even here, have only a smoulder- 
ing faith beneath the embers of w^orldliness, 
whose light never shines forth, whose works are 
according to their dim faith, and who barely 
press into heaven through gates ajar, instead of 
entering triumphantly through gates open wide, 
48 



FAITH AND WORKS. 

with loud hosannas greeting the blood-bought 
and glorified ones whose faith and works here 
have opened to them a glorious inheritance with 
the highest ones in heaven, at the right hand of 
Jesus. 

The faith which every one ought to have is 
like the faith of little children in their parents. 
They lay their hands in ours with perfect con- 
fidence. A mother is all in all to her child. 
If the mother is near, all is well. If mother's 
hand can be touched in the light of day or in 
the darkness of night, the child is at rest. There 
is no questioning in the obedient child's mind 
when he is denied his requests. 

My little boy often asks me for that which it is 
best he should not do or have, and I say, '^ No, 
darling," and his frequent reply is, *^A11 right." 

When we hold the hand of God in perfect love 

and confidence, all doubt and fear will be cast 

out, and whatever answer God may give to our 

requests, we can say with perfect resignation, 

4 49 



I 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF 

" It is, indeed, all right." And the works which 
will acconipany such faith will be holy living, and 
a constant giving of ourselves to others as Christ 
gave Himself to us, not in a sacrificial way as 
He did, but in a humanly divine way, from day 
to day, doing all the Httle things of life perfectly, 
graciously, gracefully, as He would do them ; 
for life is mostly made up of little things, and 
but few of us are called to do great things. 

God will assign to us our daily tasks, and we 
need take no care or thought as to whether we 
might be doing something greater or better. It 
is what God wishes us to do, and that is enough. 
Be sure He will not fail to give us all we can do 
well, nor fail to place us just where He wishes 
us to be. And we are not to fret nor be dis- 
couraged if sometimes the place seem humble, 
or the work too hard. We have taken up the 
cross to follow Him whose lot was indeed hum- 
ble, and whose task was arduous, and we must 
not shrink, but clasp the strong hand the tighter, 
SO 



FAITH AND WORKS, 

and lean more heavily upon the strong arm, 
and He will bring us through victorious. 

The power of faith is beyond measure. If 
the members of one large church had the faith 
they might have, did the works they might do, 
what a revolution would that church make with- 
in the circle of its influence. And if the mem- 
bers of all the churches in the world were really 
Christ-like, would we need to wait long for the 
answer to our daily prayer, ^* Thy kingdom 
come " ? 

Character has a wonderful influence upon 
men ; indeed, it is the man himself; and no pro- 
fessional sham will be accepted for the genuine 
thing. Men feel it in their hearts when another 
is sincere, when he stands firm as a rock for right 
and truth, when he scorns everything unworthy 
the name he bears, and lives by faith ; and they 
are right in judging of the quality of his faith by 
the work wrought in his character by that faith. 

This living faith which is like a well of water 

51 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

springing up unto everlasting life is a most won- 
derful gift from God. He holds it ready for us 
in His exhaustless treasure-house. All we have 
to do is to open our hearts to receive it. And 
how gloriously it lifts us above the friction of 
every- day life. How it calms our souls till we 
rest perfectly in His arms like an infant in the 
arms of its mother. And how easy with such a 
faith become the works. And how naturally and 
without apparent effort do we serve God, and do 
and endure His will, thus fulfilling in ourselves 
the familiar words, ^^ The just shall live by faith." 
52 



Snt 36Bliraing kumt nnt inhrstunMng. 

rr^HERE are those who do not believe the 
-*- Bible because they do not understand it — 
who do not believe in God because He is veiled 
in mystery. 

What do we understand ? The smallest leaf 
that glistens in the sunshine and quivers in the 
breeze is incomprehensible to us. Were we to 
try minions of years, we could not make one. 
The blade of grass grows silently from the tiny 
seed, we know not how. Slowly, slowly the 
acorn sends forth a tree which defies wind and 
storm in its strength and majesty, and Ruskin 
looks at it with wonder to say, **What a thought 
it was when God thought of a tree ! " 

Look at the flowers, so varied in their beauty. 
Whence do they derive their color and fragrance ? 

53 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

How is it possible that so much loveliness can 
be centered in a lily or a rose ? How is it done 
We are dumb before these thoughts of God ex- 
pressed in the grass, flowers, trees, and in all 
living, growing things. And there are mightier 
things than these. Who understands the law by 
which we and all other objects on the face of 
the earth are kept from being thrown off into 
space in its rapid whirl on its own axis, as it 
majestically travels on its ceaseless journey round 
the sun ? Look into the heavens on a clear win- 
ter night, and comprehend, if you can, what you 
behold. We do not even understand ourselves. 
Who can explain the union of the soul and body 
during life, and the separation of the same at 
death ? Who can tell when and how the soul- 
life comes to us ? And nothing can be more 
wonderful and mysterious than the reproduction 
of species throughout the animal and vegetable 
kingdom. 

Thus we may go on from one thing to an- 
54 



NOT BELIEVING. 

Other until we are forced to cry out, ** Alas, we 
know not anything ! " and to feel that we are 
tossed upon an ocean of uncertainty and unrest, 
without a rudder to direct our course, unless we 
look upon everything as the work of an infinite 
God of Love and Omniscience, who holds the 
universe in the hollow of His hand ; who directs 
and disposes all things for our highest good ; who 
has created all the beauty and loveliness of this 
world for our happiness, and without whose no- 
tice not even a sparrow falls to the ground. 
Then, indeed, we can rest in Him and be satis- 
fied, and not expect to understand all His won- 
derful works, nor to fully comprehend Him or 
His Word. 

He has revealed Himself to us in His Word, 
in nature, and in the person of His Son so fully 
that we may love and honor Him, and delight to 
do His will, and be at peace with Him. And we 
may enjoy to the utmost all the beauty and end- 
less mystery of nature in her richness and pro- 

55 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

fusion, recognizing in all the handiwork of Him 
in whose regard we are sinful, ignorant creatures, 
and yet His noblest work. Perfect manhood and 
perfect womanhood are glorious. " In the image 
of God created He them." And bearing about 
with us something divine, we may be kings and 
queens upon the earth ; but only as we are obe- 
dient subjects of our Heavenly King, toward 
whom disloyalty is the highest treason, justly 
punishable by banishment from His presence 
forever. 

What honor he bestows upon us in calling us 
His children, and in making us joint-heirs with 
Christ in the heavenly inheritance ; in holding 
us in His great arms of love to soothe our cares 
and sorrows, that we may be able to bear that 
which is inevitable on account of our own sinful 
natures and the sins of those with whom we come 
in contact. Were we as pure as nature, did we 
carry out the true purpose of life as does a blade 
of grass, what a heaven this earth would be ! 

56 



NOT BELIEVING, 

But the curse of sin is upon us all, and the only 
way to struggle out of its chains, the only way to 
attain to pure womanhood and to pure man- 
hood, is by the help of Jesus Christ, 

He who gives to the flowers their perfume and 
color, to the sky its blue, to the clouds their 
splendor, to the forest-trees their varied shades 
of green and their brilliant autumnal hues, to the 
elements their power for good and ill, to the 
earthquake its terror, to the lightning its tongue 
of flame and its voice of thunder, can do infi- 
nitely greater things than these in cleansing our 
hearts in the blood of Jesus, and restoring us to 
His favor, and to a place in His kingdom. And 
can we refuse to believe and accept this most 
wonderful of all mysteries because we cannot 
understand it ? Must we wait for a clear insight 
into the things of God before we believe in them ? 
Can we make ourselves as gods to pry into that 
which is hidden from us ? Is it not absurd to 
expect to know what God only knows ? The 

57 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

finite cannot fathom the Infinite, and who can 
find out God ? 

God is love. This one attribute of love sur- 
rounds us, fills us, upholds us, encircles us so 
that nothing can touch us that does not come 
through this circle of His love. Nothing can 
annoy or vex us that He does not permit. 

Milk for babes, and meat for strong men. We 
are His babes in this world, and all that we can 
grasp and use He has given to us, and it is 
neither an occasion for regret or for distrust that 
we cannot compass the universe with our under- 
standing as He does. God is ; we are. And 
what can feeble ones do but rest in the All- 
powerful ? What can ignorant ones do but learn 
of the Omniscient ? 

We have all eternity before us in which to 
learn of God and His mighty works. Here we 
only master the alphabet ; for this is a training- 
school, a small beginning ; and unless we learn 
well the Alpha and Omega, and all that lies be- 
58 



NOT BELIEVING. 

tvveen of the lesson God has given us to learn 
here, we cannot expect to understand the lan- 
guage of Heaven. 

If we wish to become proficient in any branch 
of study, we do not begin with that part which 
is most difficult, and throw it aside in disgust, 
saying, ^' I will have nothing to do with it, for it 
is impossible to understand it"; but we begin 
with the rudiments, and advance slowly, step 
by step like a little child learning to walk, 
till all obstacles are surmounted, and what at 
first was incomprehensible, becomes easy and 
well understood. And if we sit at the feet of 
Jesus, willing to be taught the alphabet of the 
Word, willing to be in the lowest class till we are 
prepared to go up higher, much that seems dark 
and difficult now will be illuminated and made 
easy as we go on in loving obedience to the Di- 
vine will. And oh what a comfort it is to be cer- 
tain that what we do not know Jesus knows, and 
wherein we fail, He, with tender, brotherly love, 

59 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

will intercede for us, and cover our defects with 
His own righteousness, and present us faultless 
before the throne of God to go no more out 
forever. 

60 



Milt it mitti Sms. 

r j IHERE are many things we must settle with 
-*- Jesus, and which no human being can ad- 
just ; trials we can tell to no one, and heart-aches 
we must hide even from our nearest friends. 
There are things which wound us, which oppress 
or injure us, which human nature would settle 
with the offenders — sarcasm for sarcasm, harsh 
word for harsh word, unkind deed for unkind 
deed, following the old interpretation of the law, 
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But 
we who belong to Christ have no right to return 
evil for evil, nor to make any attempt toward 
vengeance or retaliation. He will teach us how 
to meet wrong and injustice, and we ought riot 
dare to meet them in any other way than that 

61 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

which He suggests to us by His life and precepts, 
or by the direct influence of the Holy Spirit 
within our hearts. 

When our accustomed serenity is suddenly dis- 
turbed and we are nearly overpowered by the 
tumult within us, then should we go away alone 
and settle it with Jesus. 

When we are unjustly blamed for some un- 
pleasant occurrence, and we cannot make any 
one understand that we are not at fault, all we 
can do is to carry our trouble to Jesus. 

When our pride is wounded by those who are 
our equals, or perhaps our inferiors, but who re- 
gard themselves our superiors, and we are angry 
with ourselves because we are found trailing our 
armor in the dust instead of wearing it, thus 
rendering ourselves liable to the thrusts of the 
enemy whose vigilance surpasses ours, we 
should go to Jesus at once and tell Him all 
about it. 

When recognition is denied us, and we are set 
62 



SETTLE IT WITH JESUS, 

aside by those who are less intelligent or less 
'refined than ourselves, who can understand our 
position better than He ? 

There are many times when our hearts are 
restless and turbulent, and we cannot assign any 
reason for it, when we realize that our blessings 
are many, and that we ought to be happy, but 
are not; then all we can do is to go to Jesus. 
He will search us and try us and find out the 
cause for all our restlessness, and apply the 
remedy in love and tenderness. ^^ Search me, O 
Lord, and try me, and see if there be any wicked 
way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." 

There are many things about which there is a 
great difference of opinion, which we must settle 
with Him. 

Shall we frequent the theatre ? 

Is it right for us to spend much time in idle 
amusements ; in the mere formalities of society ; 
in meeting the demands of those for whom we 
have no affection, and who have no real interest 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

in us? Is it right to keep late hours, and to 
dance until we are very weary ; to eat and drink 
that which slowly undermines our health and 
strength ? 

Should we look upon those less favored than 
ourselves with wealth or position as our inferiors, 
regardless of their real worth ? Do we not prove 
our own inferiority by this very act ? Ought we 
to speak ill of others unless circumstances re- 
quire us to tell what we know to be true ? Let 
Jesus answer all these questions; Human judg- 
ment is rarely free from prejudice. He only can 
decide impartially. He sees things through the 
bright light which surrounds the throne. His 
judgment is as clear as the light of heaven. He 
knows even the subtle influences which sur- 
round us. There is no dimness in His vision. 
There are no beams in His eyes, no doubts in 
His mind ; and loving us supremely, He cannot 
but guide us for our good. He will answer all 
our questions in ways that cannot be mistaken, 
64 



SETTLE IT WITH JESUS. 

if we really desire to do His will. If we desire 
our own way, the answer is not always clear to 
us, for it is in some degree modified by our own 
preconceived opinions. 

Blessed will be the time when we settle every- 
thing with Jesus ; when we no longer trust to 
our own judgment ; when we no longer cry out 
anxiously, "What shall I do?" Blessed indeed 
to have no more harassing care about the future, 
to be at rest in Him. 

We have all experienced hours of peace which 
passeth all understanding, but to have this peace 
at all times, Jesus must be close at hand. To 
settle all our difficulties, He must abide with us, 
that quick as thought His presence may be 
felt, and His hand grasped, and His strength im- 
parted. Thus only can we perform faithfully 
the common duties of life, moving quietly above 
their vexations, hiding from others our annoy- 
ances as the calmly flowing river hides the rough 
places of its stony and uneven bed. 
5 65 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

But many cry out, *'My heart is sinful; my 
speech is wicked ; my house is in disorder ; I am 
not prepared to entertain a King." 

If we shut Christ out with the plea, ** I am 
unworthy that Thou shouldst come under my 
roof," then do we shut Him out forever, for 
we can never become worthy of His abiding 
presence by our own efforts. It is He who will 
make our hearts and homes pure and fit temples 
for the King of Glory. We should invite Him 
to come in, not because we are worthy of Him, 
but because He loves us, and He will come in. 
And we may know that He is with us in the same 
way in which we know our dearest friend is in the 
room. Though we are not looking at him, nor 
thinking of him, we are conscious of his presence. 
We heed not think about Jesus to the exclu- 
sion of other things, but we may have the joy 
of His presence in the home, or wherever we 
may be ; His helpful sympathy and imparted 
strength in our work and in our care, and His 
66 



SETTLE IT WITH JESUS, 

guidance in all our difficulties. Many think of 
Him as being at some remote corner of the uni- 
verse, except on rare occasions when He conde- 
scends to draw nearer. He is just as near to 
every one of us as we desire. How blind must 
they be who admit Him not into close commun- 
ion with themselves, and then complain that 
clouds obscure their vision ; that they have not 
as much light as they wish ; that God and heaven 
seem far away ; that they are perplexed and 
troubled about many things. 

We cannot follow a guide who is so far from 
us that we cannot see him, nor hear his voice, 
and how can we follow Jesus, unless we are near 
Him ? How keep our spiritual vision clear un- 
less He be with us to bring light out of dark- 
ness? As the branches wither and die sepa- 
rated from the vine, so do we, without Christ. 
Separated from Him, we are cumberers of the 
ground. Without His abiding presence, we are 
in imminent danger of being assailed and over- 

67 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

come by our vigilant and powerful enemy. Left 
to ourselves, we are helpless indeed. But how 
safe we are if we carry everything to Him. And 
how strong we are if we clasp His hand. In 
His calm presence how insignificant are the 
small troubles of every day ; and the doubts and 
questionings which have hitherto perplexed us 
vanish away ; all the crooked and tangled things 
become straight; all the things which once so 
wounded and vexed us lose their power over us, 
and all our restlessness disappears in the presence 
of Peace itself. 






€ Irnt it MW ^^ ^"1^11^^- 

rriHERE are many things recorded in sacred 
"^ and profane history which, at the time of 
their occurrence, seemed disastrous or unfortu- 
nate, which were often but the carrying out of 
the wicked purposes of men, yet happened and 
were accomplished that God's plan concerning 
the world might be fulfilled. 

All can recall many iitstances of the kind, and 
indeed we need only to review our own lives to 
see that, while no chastisement for the present 
seemeth to be joyous, afterward it yieldeth the 
peaceable fruit of righteousness ; so that what- 
ever happens we need not let our hands fall 
down, nor our knees become feeble, but looking 
nnto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, 
run with patience the race set before us, remem- 
bering that while God's providences are mys^ 

69 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

terioas, they are bat the fulfihDent of His 
plans concerning others or ourselves. Go(f s 
purposes are grand, and compass the ages. 
We catch onlj glimpses of what He is. doing. 
We are only unshapely masses of unhewn 
stone tumbled in confusion here and there, 
and tall cedars and fir-trees spreading their roots 
and branches on mountain heights, and gold 
and precious stones imbedded still in solid rock 
or still seething in the fiimace. We cannot see 
even in imagination the beautiful building the 
great Architect will bring forth from that which 
is now rough and unshapely. 

From chaos He wrought our world of beauty, 
and sun, moon, and stars perform His glorious 
command — " Let there be light ! " not with- 
holding for a moment their bright rays, going on 
steadily in their appointed way until their great 
glory be hidden by the Greater Glory wiiose 
light shall fill all heaven and earth. In the same 
manner will God bring out His spiritual kingdom 
70 



THA T IT' MIGHT BE FULFILLED, 

from its present chaotic state into glory and 
beauty unfading, and which though the heavens, 
may fall, will stand throughout eternity. 

God has a use for each one of us in carrying 
out His plan, insignificant and useless as our 
lives may often seem to ourselves. Not every- 
thing which is of value is conspicuous or signifi- 
cant. Hidden things are often of as much 
importance in the accomplishment of a great 
purpose as those which are visible. We are very 
small parts of a very large whole, and all the 
misfortune and unhappiness that ever came to 
us is but a grain in the accumulated weight of 
human woe. If it is necessary that we should 
be crushed and bruised in order to become ready 
for the Master's use, then should we not be will- 
ing to be crushed and bruised ? 

Whatever is needful to prepare us to fill our 
appointed place in God's great plan we should 
be willing to receive, no matter what chipping 
away of cherished forms and lineaments there 

71 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

may be. It matters not whether we become 
costly stones, or beams of cedar, or planks of 
fir, posts of olive-tree, or pure gold ; we cannot 
arrive at this fitness for use without being hewn, 
or chiseled, or refined. All things are being 
made ready for that temple which will never be 
destroyed. 

Shall we allow ourselves to be thrust aside as 
useless because we are not willing to submit to 
the processes of preparation ? Because we are 
not willing that unpleasant things, and what at 
the time seem great trials, should come to us 
that all may be fulfilled according to God's pur- 
pose ? 

Let us be careful not to make ourselves in 
our own imagination the centre of God's care, 
expecting Him to grant us especial favor. He 
has a vast family in His care, and all the good 
things are not given to a chosen few. Some- 
times it may be necessary for us to suffer in 
order that others may be helped in some way 
72 



THA T IT MIGHT BE FULFIIIED. 

by that suffering. We are called upon to be 
losers, maybe, that others may be the gainers. 
The burden and heat of the day must sometimes 
be ours that others may rest. " Bear ye one 
another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of God," 
is a Divine command. Let us hold ourselves 
ready to be used by the great Master Builder in 
whatever way He wills. Whether He makes 
of us brazen pillars to be of real service, or 
only modest lilies for the adornment of these 
pillars, is a matter of little moment. That He 
counts us worthy to be of even the humblest ser- 
vice, is a cause for our deepest gratitude. If His 
will be fulfilled, however it may affect us, it is 
enough. And so instead of fretting and regret- 
ting and wondering whether if we had done thus 
and so things would have been different, let us 
leave the past with God and earnestly seek to be 
willing that His will only be done. Harmony 
cannot be wrought out of chaos without many 
severe processes, which only God can under- 

73 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

stand or apply. And in whatever degree we are 
rebellious toward Him, to that extent do we hin- 
der the drawing nigh of the time when Christ 
shall reign triumphant over all evil, and God's 
will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

Things often happen to us which we cannot 
understand. Let us be willing that these things 
should happen in order that God's will may be 
fulfilled. Misfortune overwhelms us. Let us 
bear up bravely under it, with the thought that 
this has something to do with the fulfilment of 
the Divine will. When our friends die, it is that 
it may be fulfilled. When sickness comes upon 
us, or when our cherished purposes fail, it is that 
God's purpose concerning us in reference to His 
kingdom may be fulfilled. Even our most hu 
miliating mistakes may have a ** That it might be 
fulfilled " connected with them. 

Considered in this light, there is no real mis- 
fortune ; and just so far as we are in harmony 
with God's will, just so far will unhappiness drop 
74 



THA T IT MIGHT BE FULFILLED, 

out of our lives, and what we now call chastise- 
ments be received as ultimate blessings. 

When the day comes for that grand and silent 
building of the Eternal Temple — when neither 
hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron may be 
heard, shall we be left out because we are not 

ready ? 

** 'Tis the Master who holds the mallet, 
And day by day 
He is chipping whatever environs 
The form away. 

With tools of Thy choosing, Master, 

I pray Thee then, 
Strike just as Thou wilt ; as often 

And where and when 
The vehement stroke is needed, 

I will not mind, 
If only the chipping chisel 

Shall leave behind 
Such marks of Thy wondrous working, 

And loving skill, 
Clear carven on aspect, stature. 

And face, as will 
(When discipline's ends are over), 

Have all sufficed 
To mould me into the likeness 

And form of Christ." 75 



"jnTOW much contentment and true happiness 
is missed by the lack of common sense 
manifested by the majority of people in their 
every-day living. It is a rare thing to find a 
person who is earnest and sensible, and who 
does not feel compelled to do as others do, who 
has the moral courage to depart from the rules 
and conventionalisms of society, and to face 
boldly and with true dignity the false judgments 
and even ridicule of those who suspect him to be 
ignorant of the same, because he does not con- 
form to them strictly enough to meet their ap- 
probation. 

What people say, and what people think are 
often more weighty considerations in deciding 
upon one's manner of living than his own inter- 
76 



COMMON SENSE IN RELIGION. 

ests, absurd as this may seem when one reflects 
upon it. That this is true of many Christians as 
well as of people of the world, is greatly to be 
deplored, and it is time that more of the simpli- 
city and common sense of the religion of Christ 
were made manifest in our homes, in society, 
and in the church. 

Think for one moment how much courage it 
requires, as things are, for one associating with 
those who dress fashionably to wear contentedly 
last year's bonnet, or a dress two or three years 
old. What condition of things is that which 
fixes a value upon an acquaintance in accord- 
ance with the richness and style of her clothing ? 
What opinion can one have of herself for judg- 
ing of the mental and moral acquirements of 
another by the dress ? If one should choose 
to wear the fashion of twenty years ago, what 
matter ? Ail the fashions return again in time. 
The old become the new, and the new the old. 
What difference ? There should be equal rights 

11 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

in these things so that none need feel the weight 
of custom pressing too heavily, and that the free- 
dom of Christianity may enter into our style of 
dress, and that the consistency and common 
sense of true religion may be shown in what we 
wear and how we wear it. First of all, we should 
dress within our means, wear what is modest and 
becoming and not in the extreme of the fashion. 
Clothing has its proper uses, and is not for mere 
display — to excite the admiration or envy of 
those about us. We dress in the best taste when 
our dress does not attract attention, and when 
once put on properly, we need not think of it 
again until we take it off. It is not necessary to 
dress meanly. Our clothing may be of expen- 
sive material, and yet be modest and every way 
suitable. Indeed, it is the greatest economy to 
buy the best of the kind required, and have it 
made in a pretty and becoming style, and the 
garment may be worn two or three years without 
alteration. 

78 



COMMON SENSE IN RELIGION, 

The years that are going by cannot be recalled, 
and we are all growing old more rapidly than we 
realize. If we are to accomplish anything in life 
that is worth accomplishing, it is time we began. 
The exercise of common sense and good judg- 
ment in our every-day matters may leave us more 
time to devote to special and more important 
objects. 

It is not to be expected that those in the world 
and society who have no interest in the Chris- 
tian religion (is it because they have no souls to 
save that they are not interested in it ?) will spend 
much time or thought upon these things, but not 
so of Christians. We are not our own. Our 
time is not our own, neither is our money. We 
have given them all to Christ. He it is we must 
consult in regard to the use we make of every- 
thing. 

In seeking not to dress too much, let us avoid 
the other extreme, and not be so indifferent to 
our personal appearance as to be wanting in 

79 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

neatness and propriety. It would not be pleas- 
ing or honoring to Jesus for those whom He loves 
to neglect the body. It is the home of a soul 
which should be beautiful, as He regards beauty, 
and it should possess a quiet charm attractive to 
one's friends and to all good people. In a word, 
if we dress in a manner which pleases Him 
whose we are, what the world says or thinks 
about it is of no consequence whatever. 

There is another thing in which our influence 
is stronger than in that of dress, wherein we fail 
to use good sense, and to show ourselves con- 
sistent Christians. It is in our conversation, 
which differs far too little from that of persons 
who are not Christians. Who can listen to the 
conversation of a dozen ladies w^hom one inci- 
dentally meets at a gathering or at a public 
resort, without feeling in a great measure dis- 
quieted or ashamed ? It hardly seems possible 
that intelligent beings, lovely in the image of 
their Maker, endowed with reason, gifted often, 
80 



COMMON SENSE IN RELIGION, 

with the power of rising to an unlimited height, 
capable of reaching after, and in a measure grasp- 
ing the infinite, should be satisfied to talk of lit- 
tle besides dress and fashion and gossip, should 
be apparently satisfied with a life so unworthy. 

When the subjects for profitable conversation 
are so varied and so ample, when the mind ex- 
pands so rapidly under the influence of the in- 
terchange of thought and sentiment — when 
thought and sentiment are worthy of expression 
— what a pity that one should be satisfied with 
nonsense. And when to all the other gifts and 
graces of womanhood are added the Christ-like 
and crowning graces of religion, how surprising 
and humiliating all this is. 

One might fail to recognize a Christian lady in 
such companionship, but strange to say, there 
are many Christians who demean themselves in 
just this kind of foolish, uninteresting, unworthy 
conversation by the hour, and think nothing of 
it. What power can rouse the thousands of 
6 8i 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

women who thus waste the time, the talents, the 
energy God has given them, to a true sense of 
their obHgation to Him and to themselves ? What 
a revolution must take place in society and in 
the Church before the simplicity and nobleness 
of Christ-like lives will be realized among women ; 
before the light of wisdom and truth will shine 
forth steadily from their lives to illuminate the 
world in which they move. It is plain that 
women do not understand their power or their 
importance in the world, or so many of them 
would not lead the life of butterflies. 

And how is it at home ? Is common sense 
exercised there .^ Far too little. Many live be- 
yond their means, hoping for something unusual 
to occur in time to save them from disaster. 
Many live up to their means so closely, that 
when there is an unusual demand upon them, 
they are in trouble. And to what end is this 
hazardous way of living ? For comfort? It can- 
not give comfort. It can only bring harassing 
82 



COMMON SENSE IN RELIGION. 

care and anxiety, and the miserable satisfaction 
of knowing that what the world looks upon is 
fair, with nothing to excite the suspicion that 
poverty or even limited circumstances may be 
lurking about ; and to this poor end personal 
good sense, comfort, and happiness are sacrificed. 

When Christ tells us that we need take no 
thought for the morrow. He takes it for granted 
that we are using wisely and prudently the things 
of to-day, and not wasting our money in extrav- 
agance and useless display to convince our 
neighbors that we are persons of importance. 
He would not do that. When on the earth He 
sought not to win the praise of the world by dis- 
play. How simply and plainly He lived. Can- 
not we all learn from Him a lesson essential to 
the highest good and happiness of multitudes of 
people, indeed to every one, whether in the 
church or in the world ? 

No doubt there are many who would break 
away from the yoke imposed upon them by the 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

acquisition of wealth and position, and the tyran- 
ny of custom if they had the courage to do it. 
No doubt the existing false state of things is a 
burden to many who long for better things. But 
who will break away from it ? Who will lead 
the multitude of burdened ones into a better life, 
and to an inestimable increase of happiness ? It 
cannot be possible that such are satisfied with 
the manner in which they are spending their life. 
The God-given germ within them cannot be whol- 
ly dead. There must be frequent and earnest 
longings in their hearts for something better. 

Alas ! how many Christians are drawn into 
the current and float with the rest, resisting 
feebly or not at all the tide which is carrying 
them farther and farther from the true centre of 
all good, and bringing dishonor upon Jesus 
Christ whom they profess to love and obey. 

No one should feel compelled to do as others 
do, merely because others do it. There never 
was a greater curse entailed upon any one than 
84 



COMMON SENSE IN RELIGION, 

the false idea of aping other people. We are 
individuals. We have individuality. Let that 
individuality be preserved in all the relations of 
life. One has poverty, another has wealth. Let 
the poor man live according to his poverty, and 
the rich man according to his wealth, neither of 
them envying or sneering at the other. One has 
rare abihty, another has mediocre talent. Let 
the first use his abiHty for the best and purest 
purposes, and the other do the best he can, and 
let each be content with the other. One is fond 
of dress and willing to spend half her time in 
adorning her person. Another finds these things 
a burden from which she wishes to be freed. Let 
the former waste her time thus if she wishes ; 
what is that to the other? And let the latter 
w^alk in freedom, and dress as is convenient. 
Whose affair is it but her own?- 

Half the misery produced by envy and wound- 
ed pride, and slights real or imaginary, comes 
from the miserable entanglements which exist in 

8s 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

society. For each one is afraid to be as God 
made him and intended him to be, through fear 
some one else will take exceptions to something 
he may do or say, or something he may leave un- 
done or unsaid. Let there be perfect independ- 
ence. Let each one be a unit of unique value, 
capable of standing quite alone. 

True living does not consist in the position we 
hold in the world, or in the church, neither in the 
amount of worldly comfort and pleasure with 
which we are able to surround ourselves ; still 
less in the good or bad opinion of our fellow- 
men. That is the most noble life which gives 
little thought as to whether one is known or un- 
known, but which moves on sweetly and quietly 
in its appointed sphere, gathering each day the 
flowers within easy reach, and patiently extract- 
ing the thorns which are hidden in the sweetest 
flowers, valuing the highest those things which 
Christ values the highest, and shedding around 
the lustre of a Christ-like character. 
Z6 



COMMON SENSE IN RELIGION 

Another of the unfortunate lines drawn be- 
tween man and man is pride of family. It is a 
good thing to be able to look back upon a long 
line of noble ancestry ; but the man whose ances- 
tors were plebeians, and who wins for himself no- 
bleness, is superior to the man whose nobility is 
an inheritance. It is not what our fathers were, 
but what we are that should claim for us the high- 
est regard. It is character only that bears all tests 
through all time; that shines bright and pure 
in the clear lights of the supreme moments in 
life when we are called to noblest deeds, or bra- 
vest endurance. And when that hour comes in 
which we all must stand before God in the clear 
light of heaven, what then can stand but great- 
ness of soul ? 

The King of Heaven chose His earthly lot 
among the most lowly of His children, and es- 
teemed those noble only who were noble in char- 
acter. He taught His disciples not to seek high 
places, to seek no worldly honor or fame ; that 

87 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

the greatest victories they could achieve would 
be to conquer their own spirits, and that those 
who followed in the meek and lowly path He 
trod would be exalted to His throne in heaven. 

God made all men equal as regards individual 
rights and privileges ; equal in the contest for 
knowledge, goodness, and truth. He places low 
in the scale of humanity those who deserve to 
be low, and those who merit a high position are 
in His esteem already high, without regard to 
wealth, or family, or blood. His scale of 
measurement is ours reversed : '*The first shall 
be last, and the last shall be first." 

When we see men and things from His stand- 
point as nearly as we may, then will the galling 
chains drop off, and we be free to live in accord- 
ance with the common sense of true religion. 
Then will our dress, our conversation, our homes, 
our daily living, our position, grow into confor- 
mity with His will, and we belong to God's 
nobility, a privilege which is conferred upon 



COMMON SENSE IN RELIGION, 

many who are scorned by the nobility of this 
world. 

There are large beams in the eyes of the 
world. It does not see clearly. Then let us 
not place much value upon its judgments ; rather 
let us walk quietly with God under all circum- 
stances^ ruling our lives by that of His beloved 
Son, in whom there was no guile. 

89 



(Dnr illBspnnsiliilitii;. 

TTTHETHER.we realize it or not, whether 
^ ^ the fact is acceptable to us or not, or 
however strong our effort may be to throw it off, 
our responsibility to God, to men, to ourselves, 
remains the same. We cannot shut ourselves 
within ourselves if we try. We cannot build 
around ourselves a wall of separation from other 
people, so that it would be the same to them as 
if we were not in existence. It can never be 
the same to them. Human beings touch each 
other in some way. It is a law of nature which 
cannot be revoked. Humanity is a common 
brotherhood. 

There are lines drawn sufficiently marked, it 
would seem, to separate completely different 
classes of society ; but they cannot thus be sepa- 
90 



OUR RESPONSIBILITY, 

rated. The rich influence the poor, and the poor 
the rich ; the good influence the bad, and the 
bad the good. All classes are bound together, 
because all are human beings ; all have souls ; 
by all must be waged the battle of life ; all have 
their joys and sorrows, their conflicts and their 
victories, and to all must come finally the com- 
mon lot of death, and the probability of being 
entirely forgotten before many generations shall 
have succeeded theirs ; and upon all rests the 
burden of responsibility. 

Christ calls our influence the light we shed 
around us. Is it a true or false light ? Will it 
warn others from evil ways, or lead them into 
these w^ays ? Is it wavering or uncertain and 
deceiving like the will-o'-the-wisp, or steady and 
bright, leading always toward truth and the 
beauty of holiness ? Christ said, ^' Let your 
light so shine that men may take knowledge of 
your good work§ and glorify your Father which 
is in heaven." 

91 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

Especially in our homes should our light shine 
clear and steady. If our influence there is 
cheering, strong, and helpful — if our responsi- 
bility there is fulfilled carefully and prayerfully 
as in the presence of our God, then will there 
be shining from us a light which will never grow 
dim, and an influence will be felt almost without 
limit. 

It is in little ways that we are most tempted 
to hide our light. Physical ailments are fre- 
quently the cause, but not a good excuse for a 
surly good-morning, or a hasty word which will 
sting through all the day. It is not the burning, 
scorching, concentrated heat of the sun that is 
most acceptable, but the diffused rays reaching 
into all the dark corners, and bringing w^armth 
and life everywhere. And it is not the brilliant 
flashes of light which we shed around us that 
render our lives and the lives of others more 
lovely and lovable, but the diffu*sed light of little 
words and deeds. Neither is the severe storm so 
92 



OUR RESPONSIBILITY, 

lasting in its influence as the continued drop- 
ping which wears away the stone. We can en- 
dure an occasional outburst of anger more pa- 
tiently than the petty fretting and fault-finding 
which is of daily occurrence in many homes. 

Sunshine then, sunshine everywhere ! Keep 
absolute control of your tongue and of your 
manner. Crush back the hasty w^ord. If things 
don't suit you, don't find fault. This never in- 
duced any one to comply cheerfully with your 
wishes, and never will. Approach one another 
in love and tenderness when any difficulty is 
to be discussed or mistake corrected. It is easy 
to avoid petty bickerings and strife in a home if 
all its members will be watchful over themselves ; 
and watchfulness is absolutely necessary. Words 
slip out so easily. The tone of the voice par- 
takes so much of the feeling, and we are creat- 
ures of impulse. We have need often to say to 
ourselves, *'Wait a moment. What am I going 
to say ? " '' What am I going to do ? " Think- 

93 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

ing before speaking would many times save bit- 
ter and sometimes life-long regrets. 

We cannot think or speak, we cannot laugh or 
weep, or keep silent, stretch forth our hands or 
withhold them, give or receive without influenc- 
ing some one ; and whatever influence that is, we 
are. The water which flows from the fountain 
partakes of the precise nature of the fountain. If 
we speak gently, and our manner is always gen- 
tle, then are we gentle. If our influence upon 
others is a Christian influence, then are we Christ- 
like. If our influence is worldly, then, what- 
ever we may call ourselves, we are worldly. 
Our every act is of the utmost consequence to our- 
selves and to our race, for our influence does not 
stop with those with whom we come into immedi- 
ate contact, but it circles on to the outermost edge 
of time. Our words and deeds weigh more heavily 
in the scale of human weal or woe than we are 
apt to think. Every hour we are weaving a web 
which will entangle souls in deeper misery, or we 
94 



OUR RESPONSIBILITY. 

are drawing by the fine and beautiful threads of 
our lives souls nearer to the truth, to beauty and 
goodness — nearer to heaven. 

There are those who will say, '* Why make life 
so serious and gloomy ? " We are not dolls or 
puppets ! That our acts are of consequence, 
gives beauty and dignity to our lives ; and the 
same God who created us with the capacity to 
influence others, will strengthen us to bear the 
burden of responsibility resting upon us, and to 
meet our weighty obligation to do good and not 
evil. 

God's way is a way of light. The gloomy 
path has once been trod by Hiai who carried 
from His cradle to His grave the burden of our 
sins. He trod this path to open for us a smoother, 
brighter path. He bore the crushing burden 
that we might have no burdens. His life went 
out in darkness that ours might go out in light. 
He bore the cross that we might wear the crown. 
Instead of breaking down under a morbid fear 

95 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

of never being able to meet the demands upon 
us, we must clasp hands with Him who is our 
strength and our shield. 

It is only by perfect obedience to His com- 
mandments, a constant taking up of the cross, 
and a close following in His footsteps, that we 
can hope to fulfil our obligations to God, to our 
fellow-men and to ourselves. The Son of God 
will not lead us into any error. His command- 
ments are not grievous, nor the cross of His ap- 
pointing too heavy. It is v*^hen we rely upon 
ourselves, and disobey Christ's teaching, and 
choose our own paths and our own crosses, that 
our lives are failures and our influence evil. We 
need to have our souls lighted with fire from off 
God's altar, for all the miserable failures which 
men and women make in the matter of their 
responsibility is because their souls are not so 
lighted. 

• 96 



mk, Inntk, <§m. 

''Seek and you shall find." Seek first. 

*' Knock and it shall be opened unto you." Knock 

first. 
** Give and it shall be given unto you." Give first. 

rr^HERE is much seeking in this world. All 
are seeking something ; selfish gratification, 
the approbation of friends, costly apparel, fine 
dwellings, high places, riches, honor, fame ; all 
striving, struggling, reaching out eager hands to 
have them filled with whatever they most desire. 
What does Christ say? '' Seek first the king- 
dom of heaven!" With what results? *'And 
all things else shall be added unto you." Then 
this is all the seeking we need to do. Having 
found Jesus, and through Him the kingdom of 
heaven, we have all needful things added. We 
are not to sit down idly, however, expecting every 
7 97 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

good thing to fall into our hands with nothing 
done on our part. Having found the pearl which 
enriches us through all eternity, we are to follow 
Jesus, even though He lead us into hard work, 
and we have little earthly reward. 

** The disciple is not above his master, nor the 
servant above his lord. It is enough for the dis- 
ciple that he be as his master, and the Servant as 
his lord." 

And if the promised all things else prove to be 
no more of earthly comfort and ease than our 
Lord had, can we utter one complaint? May 
we not rather rejoice to be as our Lord ? His 
time and strength were given to His life-work 
regardless of worldly gain or ambition. He was 
content to have no place to lay His head, and 
our wants are innumerable. Let us try to meas- 
ure the needs of life more by His standard, and 
count it our highest honor to live simply, so that 
we may have much time and strength to give to 
our Father's business. 

98 



SEEK, KNOCK, GIVE, 

Seek first the kingdom of heaven. We thus 
begin with the highest good, and all less weighty 
matters will be arranged for us in the good provi- 
dence of God, so that if we have the kingdom 
we have allihi?2gs. 

Seek as Christ seeks, earnestly. 

Some of us expect the door to be always open 
wide into all kinds of temporal and spiritual 
blessings, and that all we have to do is to walk 
in and appropriate to ourselves whatever we 
please. But here again there is something for us 
to do before we are permitted to enter ; a sim- 
ple thing, but something. Jesus might have made 
the way of entrance into the highest good much 
more difficult for us, but He imposes upon us 
easy yokes and light burdens, that we in bearing 
them may show our willingness to obey Him, 
and to follow wherever He may lead us ; and so 
He bids us knock at the door, and gives us the 
assurance that we shall be admitted through 

99 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

this open door into whatever is highest and 
best. 

And even though it be an ever open door, we 
are to approach reverently, and not with too 
great familiarity. Jesu^ does not enter our 
hearts rudely, without bidding ; He knocks ; and 
if He hear no welcoming voice, He turns away 
sadly, grieving at our great loss in not receiving 
Him into our hearts, to come again and again 
with patience and sweetness, hoping to gain ad- 
mittance at last. 

Who will not do so simple a thing as knock, 
to be received as His guest, and to dwell in Him 
forever ! 

Who will not open the door of his heart to the 
Crucified One, that He may be to him the Abid- 
ing Christ. 

If every one would say to Him as He says 
to every one, ^' Knock and it shall be opened 
unto you," how quickly would peace and good- 
will to men reign on the earth, and the strong- 

lOO 



SEEK, KNOCK, GIVE. 

holds of Satan become the strongholds of the 
Lord ! 

Knock as Christ knocks — persistently. 

We are inclined to wait until much is given 
unto us, before we think of giving. Until so 
much is given to us that it requires no sacrifice 
or self-denial, and we do not in the least miss 
what we give. Jesus understood human nature 
too well not to see our selfishness and provide a 
remed)^ ; and so He gave us the apparently un- 
reasonable command to give, even before we 
receive. But He no doubt meant, ^' Give what 
you have, and more shall be given unto you." 

We are all born with some gifts and graces. 
We can give smiles, love, patience, forbearance, 
confidence, a pressure of the hand, a word of 
cheer, a ^'come up hither." And none of us are 
so poor that we cannot give money, even though 
it be but a few pennies, where money is needed. 
Whatever we have, however small it may be, we 

lOI 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

are to give continually, and the more we give the 
more we shall receive. This is not in agreement 
with any human calculation, but with the divine 
arrangement ; and we all know by experience 
how beautiful is that arrangement; for we can- 
not live wholly to ourselves without exhausting 
ourselves, and the only way to build ourselves 
up, is by giving ourselves away. 

That which we receive is not always of the 
same kind as that we give, but often far better. 
The widow who gave the two mites may not 
have had her store of mites afterward increased, 
but how far more precious to her was the appro- 
bation of her Lord, and the lasting monument 
His words built to her memory. Let us not be 
deceived with the suggestion the evil one is always 
making to us, that we have nothing to give. Poor 
and meagre, and dwarfed indeed must his life be 
who cannot in some way make the world better 
and happier for his havinglived in it. Let us give, 
then, of all we possess, as Christ gives, royally. 

I02 



€)}t farting nf tljB Wa^. 

A T every parting of the way look carefully 
-^•-^ for the sign of the cross, and do not let 
your eyes become so dazed by the shining of the 
showy, gilded s^gn-board pointing the other way, 
that you do not see the words upon the cross 
written in letters of blood — 

"THIS WAY, MY CHILD." 

When you are greatly perplexed and in doubt 
what to do, you are at a cross-road, and it is of 
the utmost importance which way you take, for 
the termination of the two ways may be vastly 
remote from each other, and one of them must 
of necessity lead you entirely away from the 
place for which you set out. 

There are many paths which cross each other, 
so small that you think you do not need direc- 

103 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

don, that it makes no difference which one you 
take. It does make much difference. Many 
footpaths lead into highways, and some that 
seem straight at the beginning are crooked, and 
you waste time in taking them, even if they 
come out right at the last. Time is short, and 
you need to follow the straight and unobstructed 
paths to worthy goals. Even at the outset, there 
is no time to lose ; and at twenty, thirty, forty 
years, siu-ely there is none. 

You sometimes think you would like to go 
back and start again. How much better to have 
gone rightly from the beginning, so as to waste 
no time in retracing your steps. And then the 
course of the years is ever onward ; we cannot 
retrace our steps. 

Sometimes you think there is some mistake, 
because your path is narrow and obscure, lead- 
ing through unfrequented regions. If you are 
following the path marked out by the sign of the 
cross, do not doubt, do not be discouraged. You 
104 



THE PARTING OF THE WAY. 

know not how soon nor how suddenly it may 
emerge into the broad highway, nor into the 
golden streets of heaven. 

The cross-roads and diverging paths in life are 
many. We are often compelled to ask, "Which 
is the right way ? " Dare to ask it of no one but 
Jesus Christ. His answer will always be, '^ The 
way of the cross." 

There are paths which look pleasant and safe, 
wherein we see many walking, into which we are 
tempted to enter. Can we place a cross at the 
entrance to these paths without desecrating it ? 
Can we walk in them without grieving our 
Lord? 

To what are we asking the way ? To wealth, 
to honor, to fame ? The cross leads not to 
these. It points in the way He trod. Are you 
able to follow in the thorny, desolate way, re- 
jected of men, crucified as to your own will, then 
go by the sign of the cross. He endured all this 
and more for you, and is it not a small matter 

105 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

for you to give your life to Him that He may 
use it as He wills ? And while one side of the 
cross is dyed in blood, the other side is illumin- 
ated and emits rays of light which pierce far into 
the unknown path before us revealing Jesus walk- 
ing as our guide ; and if in moments of discour- 
agement we think some other way might lead 
more smoothly on to the same goal, we have only 
to listen quietly to hear the gentle voice, " This 
is the way, my child." 

The cross points to everything pure and beau- 
tiful. The other sign-board points to selfishness, 
to sin, and a final dwarfing of the soul to minute 
proportions, so that God would hardly recognize 
in it the work of His hands. The cross here 
points to the crown in heaven, to golden harps, 
to white robes, and everlasting glory ; the other 
sign-board to chains, to final condemnation, to 
endless remorse. 

Do not think that the cross points one way 
to all. It turns upon the pivot of God's love, 
io6 



THE PARTING OF THE WAY, 

and points in different ways according to His 
will. The way to some is over a hill Difficulty, 
or through sloughs of despondency, or through 
shadowy valleys. But the Guide is always at 
hand to assist at need. To some there are lions 
in the way, but they need not fear. God will 
send an angel to shut the lions' mouths. 

When we come to diverging paths, one may 
seem smooth and safe, the other rough and dan- 
gerous. It is quite natural to choose the smooth 
way ; but if the cross points to the dangerous 
way, enter it fearlessly. There is no danger too 
great to encounter for His sake ; and often 
things that frighten us are only lions chained. 

When hard questions perplex, look carefully to 
see which way the cross points. When tempted 
to follow broad and inviting paths, let us look 
for the cross. When we are weary and discour- 
aged, the cross points to rest after toil. When 
we are sin-burdened, it points to the Lamb of 
God, our sacrifice. When we are lonely, it points 

107 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

to Him our best friend. When we mourn, it 
points to Him our Comforter. 

'^THIS WAY, MY CHILD." 

Ever near us, placing at every parting of the 
way His cross, is our Redeemer, who died that 
we might live forever, redeemed, glorified, a great 
company which no man can number — around 
the throne, forever blessed, with crosses all left 
behind, and crowns resplendent with jewels, and 
the glory of God and His Son filling all. 

The cross at the beginning of the way and at 
many turning-points, and at the end the crown 
of glory for all who forsake not the way of the 
cross. 

Make a wise choice at the parting of the way ! 
io8 



"YT7"E are apt to think when we turn two 
score years that we are growing old ; 
that our life is at its ebb ; that whatever prepara- 
tion for the proper fulfilment of Hfe's duties we 
have neglected, cannot be made now ; that if we 
find ourselves at this period of life uneducated, 
undeveloped, wanthig in this or that acquirement 
or accomplishment, there is little use in trying to 
make up for it now. We are too old. Life is 
too far gone. We shall soon be growing gray, 
and passing on into the shadows. But let us look 
back a little. How many years of our life were 
devoted to physical growth ? Fourteen or fifteen. 
How much of this time to mental development ? 
Seven or eight. How much time at the college 
or the seminary ? Four or five, making eighteen 
or twenty in all. If then we were prepared to 

109 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

enter upon active life at the early age of twenty, 
we have had only twenty years of activity, and 
are worn out at that ; are now getting past our 
prime ! 

The life-work of many does not begin until 
they are thirty, or even forty; and if we are 
cherishing any morbid, unhealthy fancies in re- 
gard to our waning powers, let us throw them 
aside and remember that we are now in our 
prime; and if we have already wasted so much 
of our life that we are still unprepared for 
earnest work, let us begin our preparation at once. 
Fifty years may be added to our life, and is it 
not worth while to spend three, four, even ten 
years if need be, in making ready for that '^ add- 
ed length of days " even at forty ? 

Our blessed Lord spent thirty years in prep- 
aration for a ministry of three years. Should 
not this be a lesson of patient perseverance and 
a rebuke to our haste and superficialness in our 
own education and self development ? 
no 



ARE WE GROWING OLD f 

It is unfortunate that it should be necessary to 
begin any preparation so late in life, for one does 
not then learn as easily, and there are many 
more distractions and cares ; but it is far better 
then than not at all \ and what we need to do 
first is to rid ourselves of the thought that we 
are now too old to learn. The best part of our 
life is before us. Forty years of experience have 
not been lost. We have learned much in this 
way if in no other. We can look upon life more 
calmly, and with clearer sight. We can weigh 
people and things more accurately, and adjust 
them in their proper places as regards ourselves. 
We are stronger in our manhood and woman- 
hood, and stronger in faith and hope. Many 
things have disappointed us, but there is much 
left which cannot disappoint. 

We have, perhaps, spent much time heretofore 
in the accumulation of property, in the care of 
children, in seekinsf to advance our own inter- 
ests. Now we may be able to give more time to 

III 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

Others, in such ways as are presented to us, and 
if our years for preparation have not been idly 
wasted, how much good may every one of us 
accomplish. 

Forty years seem long when we think only of 
our life here, especially to those who in that 
time have experienced much sorrow and many 
changes ; but in the thought of the eternal years, 
it is only a beginning. And when we realize as 
well we may, that to the soul there comes neither 
decay nor death, how can we ever feel that we 
are growing old. When millions and millions of 
years have passed, v/e shall still be young. We 
are never-dying spirits in bodies which must at 
last grow old and fade away ; immortal souls, 
just on the threshold of our existence. Why 
should we consider the years that are gone as a 
large part of our lives, when we are babes still, 
cradle-rocked in the arms of God, still needing 
His guiding hand that we may be kept from 
falling, still loving the foolish things of this 

112 



ARE WE GROWING OLD? 

world, and constantly thinking our own way the 
best? 

Old at forty ? Why, we are just beginning to 
walk a little by catching hold of objects nearest 
to us. Ours is but a child's comprehension of 
the all that is begun here to be perfected in 
heaven. 

As regards this life we may indeed feel that the 
dignity of manhood and womanhood is ours at 
forty, that the season of our life called youth has 
wholly passed, that we stand at a point where 
the past and the future are about evenly bal- 
anced. If it is a grand thing to have lived so long, 
it will 1)0 grander still to live forty years longer. 
It would seem that after so much experience the 
rest of life might count for much. That there 
need be no more time wasted, no more energy 
spent upon unworthy objects or pursuits, no more 
feeding upon common fare, but that the rest of 
life should be rich and full, with each day show- 
ing a better fitness for heaven, until w^e are 

113 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

bowed down with age, yet only for a little while 
here, to wake some morning yonder and find our- 
selves forever young. 

Take up then your life-work just where you 
have laid it down. You are still strong for work, 
and with the richness and fulness of advancing 
years there may come into your soul joy and 
peace — the conscious reward of work well 
done. Try to comprehend the all of life. Avoid 
using it as if it were merely something to be en- 
dured ; as if the life-battle were only to gain a 
sustenance for the body. Even to the humblest 
laborer life should be something more than this. 
It should be to him the threshold of heaven — 
all his troubles and hardships only stepping- 
stones thither. None need be mere laborers. 
Work is not incompatible with the deepest 
spirituality, the highest sensitiveness and refine- 
ment. To be spiritual it is not necessary to 
retire within secluded walls, or to lay aside the 
active pursuits of Hfe. Spiritual things and 
114 



ARE WE GROWING OLD? 

temporal things do not clash. As body and 
spirit serve each other, so the natural and the 
spiritual go together in our lives. We need not 
seek to separate them. We need not think that 
spirituaHty on our part is impossible because our 
days are full of ordhiary labor. 

The Saviour of the world, by leading the way, 
made it possible for us to perform the humblest 
duty, and at the same time keep the mind clear, 
the heart pure, and the spirit calm. While look- 
ing at the stars we need not stumble in our way. 
While our hands are busy, the spirit may be free. 
What is needed more than anything else is a 
belief in the possibility of a life of spiritual free- 
dom while under the bondage of work and worry. 

It is desirable to have one's surroundings 
pleasant and beautiful, to have the dwelling 
cheerful and attractive with artistic decoration, 
agreeable books, and fine pictures ; but how 
much more desirable a spiritual beauty, with 
resources for unfailing happiness growing out of 

ii5 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

a mind at rest. In one's self must be the source 
of the spring which \Ndll make and keep fresh 
and green all the pathway of life, and secure a 
perpetual youth. What if the walls are bare and 
the house desolate ? In the soul there may be 
wealth and beauty, and joy which will endure 
forever, and without which all external wealth 
and adornment and apparent joy will be as 
ashes. 

Then, whatever your age may be, train your- 
self to the highest culture. Begin at the right 
place, that you may lose neither time nor effort. 
Seek first the kingdom of God. In the Lord's 
prayer, the petition " Thy kingdom come, Thy 
will be done," comes before all the personal pe- 
titions, if all had begun the Christian life in 
childhood, what an advantage would have been 
gained; but alas! how many have waited until 
they were old. To follow the wTong path forty, 
fifty, seventy years, and only seek the kingdom 
in the last hours of life, how dreadful ! How 
ii6 



ARE WE GROWING OLD? 

sad to think of the influence of such lives upon 
others who have come in contact with them. 

We count the years allotted to the life of the 
body. The length of life allotted to the soul 
cannot be estimated. Let not the number of 
years, then, weigh too heavily upon the spirit ; it 
can never grow old, but it can grow in goodness, 
in knowledge, in love and purity, till it will bear 
the weight of declining physical powers in a 
sweet and heavenly manner, till second child- 
hood will be but the renewal of the spirit's youth, 
and an obedient answer to the suggestion of our 
Saviour, '' Except ye become as little children, 
ye can in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven." 
All of us call to mind examples of this in dear 
old people whom we have known, when it 
seemed that the older they grew, the more lovely 
they became, till *' Holiness to the Lord" was 
written on their foreheads. 

At two score we stand upon an eminence 
from which we can look both ways : backward 

117 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

to infancy, forward to old age. The long slope up 
which we have climbed to reach this eminence is 
shrouded in mist in the distance, and we cannot 
see its beginnings clearly. Memory fails to reveal 
to us the lights and shadows of infancy ; but where 
the mist ends, clear sunshine begins, with only 
here and there a shadow as of a man's hand. 
Later, the shadows are larger, and storms threat- 
en, but near us is a clear sky, and the clouds wear 
the brilliancy of noonday. Directly above there 
may be dark clouds, or a sky of heavenly blue \ 
but we may look calmly at either, for we are 
nearing the slope on the other side, down which 
we see cool avenues and refreshing streams; 
and though we fancy we see farther on clouds 
gathering, and deep, bridgeless rivers and fiery 
clouds, we see beyond the clouds our Sun and 
Shield ; in the far west, where the sun sets, we 
see heavenly glory, and through an open window 
in the battlements of the sky, heaven's portals 
glistening, and a beckoning hand, and hear a voice 
ii8 



ARE WE GROWING OLD? 

saying, "Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. 
When thou passest through the waters I will be 
wilh thee, and through the rivers they shall not 
overflow thee ; when thou walkest through the 
fire thou shalt not be burned ; neither shall the 
flame kindle upon thee. Sing, O heavens ; and 
be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, 
O mountains ; for the Lord hath comforted His 
people." 

Surely we need not fear or be troubled as we 
enter upon the downward slopes of life. While 
our bodies must, after a few years, begin to lose 
their vigor, our spirits may still mount higher 
and gain victory after victory until all the battles 
are fought, and we calmly wait our turn to pass 
into the shadows — then in a moment to ex- 
change the cross for the crown, the decay of 
earth and the feebleness of age for the glory of 
immortality and days of eternal youth. 

Ready to die at forty ? Ah, no ! Ready to live ! 
Look back ; look forward. Forty years in the 

119 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

past ; forty, perhaps, in the future. Is it not nearly 
certain that the last may be the best, may bring 
forth fruit abundantly from the seed sown from 
infancy until now? We value time too little. 
What may one year do for us, or what may we 
do in one year ? Let us reach out hands of 
helpfulness, reach out hands of love ; and what- 
ever we find to do, do it with our might. For 
when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find 
the fields white to the harvest, and we not reap- 
ing ? Shall He find the sheaves bound and 
ready and we not gafhering them in? What- 
ever our age, shall He find us idly waiting be- 
cause we are growing old ? 

I20 



((^ntniirngBmBnt for tijj f nnr. 

r I IHERE is nothing at which we wonder more 
^ than the great contrasts which exist in the 
arrangement of human affairs in regard to the 
things of this world. Looking at the existing 
condition of things without serious contempla- 
tion, we are ready to cry out against the injus- 
tice of immense wealth on the one hand, and ab- 
ject poverty on the other ; of the honor bestowed 
upon a few men, to the absolute neglect of hosts 
of others quite as worthy ; of the satiety of com- 
forts and luxuries in one direction, and the mea- 
gre distribution of the same in the other. 

But we need consider only for a moment to 
see what a strange condition of affairs would ex- 
ist if all were upon an absolute level, or if all 
were rich, or all w^ere poor. That there should 

I2T 



HERE AIVD THERE A LEAF. 

be an ascending and descending scale in the rela- 
tion of human beings to each other is a necessity 
in the world's economy. In order that there may 
be workers in all grades of mental and manual 
labor, there must be many grades of position, 
and necessity for various kinds of work. With- 
out that necessity, the world would stand 
still. But the contrasts need not be so great. 
God's arrangement in regard to these things has 
been perverted. Many men are poorer than God 
intended them to be, through their own lack of 
thrifty or their evil habits ; and many men are 
richer than they ought to be, through their unjust 
gains. These are the things which engender 
envy, strife, and produce suffering, and induce 
some to call for a communistic division of prop- 
erty. 

If those who find themselves low in the scale 
of social position consider that they are filling a 
part of God's plan, and fill it honorably, there 
will be no need for suffering poverty. If those 

122 



ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE POOR, 

who are rich do their duty, none will have occa- 
sion to cry out against them. 

Among those who accept their condition in Hfe 
as an inheritance from their parents, and who 
consider it a matter of course that they should be 
poor^ there is great contentment in earning their 
living and enjoying what to those more highly 
favored would seem meagre pleasures. But now 
and then there is one among them who feels that 
he is born to better things ; who is not satisfied 
with his lot, and who will try to struggle into a 
higher plane. He finds no congeniaUty in the 
companionship of his associates. They cannot 
understand his aspirations for something higher 
than that with which they are amply satisfied. 

This is indeed an unhappy condition of things 
if he thinks only of himself. But may he not 
consider that some such spirits are needed to 
shed their light and influence among those who 
surround them, that they, being left to them- 
selves, may not be mere working machines? 

123 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

May he not feel that his receiving must be 
largely through giving ; that his growing must 
be through much pruning and cutting away of 
vines to be planted in other gardens ? 

Does not the branch that is buffeted and 
beaten by the storm and wind grow stronger ? 
And will not he through his struggle upward 
have an advantage over those who are born in 
luxury, upon whom storms seldom beat, and 
winds never blow ? Need any one be discour- 
aged who is ushered into the world with little but 
his own energy to bear him on successfully 
through life ? With good health, this is enough. 
He is placed face to face with the world, to 
fight his own battles, and it requires the muster- 
ing of all his mental and physical forces to fight 
those battles well. By constant exercise he 
trains and strengthens all his powers for best use. 
To be dependent on his own exertions makes 
him manly. Work is noble, and it is the indo- 
lent only who suffer when poverty presses. 
124 



ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE POOR. 

Then you who are born to an inheritance of 
self-support, rejoice rather than complain. Put 
aside all imaginary wants, and live purely 
and temperately. If opportunities for mental 
culture do not readily present themselves, make 
opportunities, and doubly improve them, so that 
in the end you may excel those whose lives have 
been filled with advantages from the cradle. That 
he is poor is no good reason why any one should 
be ignorant, unrefined, or unmanly. 

We are slow to learn the lessons of true living, 
even though they are so simple. God puts us 
wherever He wishes us to be. There are means 
within easy reach for our development in just the 
direction in which He wishes us to develop. As 
every little insect or living creature in embryo 
is placed in the centre of that which it will feed 
upon till it reaches conditions necessary to its 
' removal to a farther advanced stage of life, so 
God places us in the centre of those influences 
which are to feed and mould us for the station 

125 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

in life He wishes us to fill. Many of us think 
our fare rather devoid of delicacies, and wonder 
often why things have not been arranged more 
for our ease and comfort ; and alas, sometimes 
w^e refuse to feed upon what God provides, and 
either starve, or forsake it for forbidden food, and 
try to satisfy ourselves with husks. 

If all would take up their work just where God 
has placed them, and exhaust the resources of 
their immediate surroundings, use everything at 
their command till it is past use, waste nothing 
of the much God gives to every one whether he 
be rich or poor, work out from himself into every 
nook and corner of the limits placed around him, 
how grandly all would grow ! The law of com- 
pensation is God's law, and His creatures are not 
so impartially dealt with, after all, as one might 
suppose. The trouble comes from privileges 
and opportunities overlooked or thrust aside. 

Many poor people are unhappy because they 
consider poverty a disgrace. Their pride suffers. 
126 



ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE POOR, 

They are looked down upon by the rich. Well, 
what if they are? Does this injure them? 
Wherein lies the disgrace of poverty ? Happiness 
and the highest good does not come from the 
manner in which others regard us, but from what 
we ourselves are, and from sources above the 
power of the human to bestow. One reason why 
the rich look down upon the poor is because they 
associate poverty with ignorance and want of re- 
finement. This show^s an ignorance of their fel- 
low-creatures; and they forget how many leading 
men come from the ranks of lowly life, while few 
sons of rich men reach positions of honor and 
large influence except in name. 

What credit is it to a man to be rich when his 
\vealth is inherited ? What honor is it to have a 
noble title w'hen that title is either inherited or 
bought, compared with the credit and honor due to 
those who gain through their own honest and w^ell- 
directed efforts either wealth or a good name ? 

The Saviour of the world gave the greatest 

127 



HERE AXD THERE A LEAF. 

consolation that could be given to the poor, by 
assuming a lowly condition, that of the peasant 
and the laborer ; the son of a carpenter, Him- 
self a carpenter in His youth, no doubt, helping 
His father Joseph to earn their daily bread, liv- 
ing the simple life of the poor, sharing their joys 
and sorrows, unnoticed and unknown except to 
the little circle about Him, finding His recreation 
in the quiet and beautiful scenery around His 
home, loving nature and all things pure and 
beautiful ; and He also asserted the dignity of 
labor, and placed upon it the seal of His own 
hand, thus showing His sympathy with, and ap- 
preciation of all honest toil throughout all time, 
and removing from the curse, ''In the sweat of 
thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return 
unto the ground," its sharpest sting. 

The Son of God, the Holy One, the Beautiful 
One, lived thirty years in poverty and toil, and 
in lowly and sweet submission to His lot, unno- 
ticed and unknown ! 
128 



I 



ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE POOR, 

Looking on this picture, which is not imagi- 
nary, but real, as are the lowly and self-sacrificing 
lives of thousands to-day, need any one feel 
that poverty is a disgrace, or that any toil or dep- 
rivation is too severe to be endured patiently 
for His sake ? 

We are to make every possible effort to pro- 
vide for those dependent upon us, as well as for 
ourselves, looking for God's daily blessing upon 
our efforts ; and if we fail, through ill health or 
accident, we should still sweetly accept God's 
will, and shunning all bad habits, leave ourselves 
III His care. It is not when the world smiles 
upon us, and all our earthly path is smooth and 
jo3^ous, that the angels come and go upon the 
ladder reaching heavenward, bringing us mes- 
sages of peace from Him who sitteth upon the 
throne, but often when we are alone, and fleeing 
from the world and its allurements, and some- 
times when we are homeless and forsaken, out 
under the stars of heaven, the earth our bed, a 
9 129 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

stone our pillow, and God our only refuge and 
strength. Nothing can cast us out of His pres- 
ence. He will take us up quickly when men 
forsake us, and take us finally to Himself to en- 
joy the true riches which all, however poor they 
may be here, may inherit in the heavenly king- 
dom. 

It is only when poverty is accompanied by 
vice that it is a curse. 

Go into the thousands of humble homes scat- 
tered all over our land, and see how peace and 
contentment reign therein, when in many in- 
stances the daily toil provides only what is suffi- 
cient for the day itself, and where the Saviour's 
^^Take no thought for the morrow" falls a wel- 
come sound upon their ears ; for how can they 
take thought for to-morrow whose resources are 
sufficient only for to-day ? 

Honest toil, simple and upright lives, the 
Christian's faith and hope make them quiet and 
tranquil, and their outlook into eternity is 
130 



ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE POOR. 

brighter than that of many who scorn them be- 
cause they are poor. 

But when intemperance and other vices enter 
in at the door, then abject poverty and untold 
misery is close at hand. Fear not poverty if 
you have the love of Christ in your heart, and 
His abiding presence in your home. If you love 
Him not, and your ways are evil, though millions 
of money were at your command, you are in- 
deed poor, and wretched, and miserable ; and 
far less to be envied than the poor man who 
does not know to-day where he will find his food 
on the morrow, but whose life is pure, whose 
feet are upon a sure foundation which will not 
fail him, though everything else totter and fall, 
though the earth melt and pass away. 

131 



€iitti BJDtljBrs. 



TT is a great joy and honor to be a mother. 
-^ None know the wonderful, heavenly ecstasy 
which enters into her heart when her babe is 
placed on her bosom, nor the depth of the love 
and tenderness awakened at the birth of every 
child, but the mother. It is an experience which 
one cannot well afford to be without, that of 
bearing and rearing children. Even when death 
comes to take away the most beautiful one, that 
too opens a path in which it is good to walk, 
though it be in anguish of spirit ; for it is better 
to have children and lose them, than not to have 
them at all. The discipline is refining, and to 
have children in heaven a never-ending joy. 
But they bring with them toil and trouble, anx- 
ious days and sleepless nights, and great trials 
of patience and physical endurance. 
132 



TIRED MOTHERS, 

They throw chains around you which it is im- 
possible to sever. You are no longer free. 
Your time is not your own. It belongs to them. 
From the first moment when the strange little 
voices are heard, they are tyrants, and you are 
a slave. How to bear the fetters lightly so that 
they will not oppress you, is a lesson well worth 
learning ; for when the family increases rapidly, 
and there are two or three hardly past baby- 
hood, how tired the mothers are. How often 
they feel disheartened, and hardly know which 
way to turn with the multiplicity of cares de- 
volving upon them. This is the situation of 
every true mother, no matter how many nurses 
and servants she may have ; and how is it when 
there are no nurses, and no servants? Tired 
mothers indeed. The world must be full of 
them. 

There is no end to the buttons to be sewed 
on, the stockings to be darned, the holes to be 
mended. There is sweeping and cleaning, a 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

life -long battle with dust, cobwebs, and flies. It 
requires a great effort to decently exist ; to keep 
your house, your children, and yourself in order. 
The three meals follow each other in quick 
succession, then it is soon bed-time, and each 
succeeding day is like the others. How many 
women there are into whose life there comes 
little but this weary round of wearisome duties, 
w^ith no time to enjoy the house in order, or the 
clean children, or a quiet evening. 

It may be your own fault if life becomes to 
you thus full of care and labor. You may be 
inefficient, or too neat, or too great a care-taker. 
But often it seems inevitable. Is it possible, 
then, for you to be anything but a living autom- 
aton ? How can you avoid it ? How can you 
rise above circumstances which require your 
whole strength of mind and body to compass ? 

In the first place, do not overtax yourself. It 
is better to leave some things undone than to 
get so weary that a night of sound sleep will 
134 



TIRED MOTHERS, 

not refresh you. Do not allow yourself to be 
tied up with cobwebs and buried in dust beyond 
escape or resurrection. If the house is not al- 
ways in perfect order no one need be distressed 
about it. If your children are not always per- 
fectly clean and tidy, it will not hinder their 
growing up to be good. Do the best you can 
toward the accomplishment of your daily duties, 
and when you have used the strength given you 
for the day, stop. You have done all that is re- 
quired of you, and more, for a little strength and 
brightness should be reserved for the evening 
hours when your husband and children have 
leisure to enjoy your presence and helpful sym- 
pathy. 

Do not try to conceal from your husband that 
you have genuine work to do each day. Hus- 
bands know little of household matters, though 
they are apt to think they know all about them. 
Do not hesitate to initiate him into their myste- 
ries. It will make him more helpful and sympa- 

135 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

thetic to know your exact position and diffi- 
cullies, and he will be more ready to excuse 
some things which you are una,bie to do even to 
your own satisfaction. 

Try to find something to occupy and interest 
your mind while your hands are busy. If you 
live in the country, while the weather is \\arm, 
take all the work you can to the piazza or under 
a tree, and let the baby play about you. He 
will be less trouble out of doors, and the sun- 
shine and fresh air will be of inestimable benefit 
to you both. There is a fine view near your 
house. Enjoy it for ten minutes each day. 
You will work the faster for the interruption. 

While you are busy with indoor work, the 
sunshine comes streaming into your room, mak- 
ing beautiful pictures of shimmering leaves and 
drooping vines upon the walls ; and this is God's 
message to you, ** Cheer up." How bright it is. 
What a message of love it is to you from God. 
Will you heed it, and work for the rest of the 
136 



TIRED MOTHERS. 

day with more hope, with lighter heart, and 
brighter face ? The Uttle birds work and sing. 
Have you not a song in your heart also, and 
does it not sometimes break forth into words? 
Sing while you work. It will make the work 
lighter. 

Open your eyes to the beauty around you. If 
you live near the woods, enjoy them. Even the 
sight of them is refreshing, and an occasional 
ramble in them will teach you how nature every- 
where is struggling to assert herself and do her 
utmost to improve every particle of dust, every 
drop of dew, and every stray sunbeam, to make 
herself useful and beautiful. Even the rocks? 
hard and barren as they are, nourish the mosses 
aiid lichens, which you will find to be wonderful 
miniature forests, if you look at them through 
the microscope. 

Are there mountains in sight of your home ? 
Then, indeed, are you fortunate, for nothing in 
nature can be more restful or joy-giving than the 

t37 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

sight of mountains standing strong and silent 
against the sky, with sunset glory gilding them, 
or clouds kissing their brows, catching the first 
greeting of the morning sun, or made entrancing 
by the soft light of the moon ; with mysterious cav- 
erns and recesses, where the shadows always lie, 
and ravines through which the mountain streams 
roar and tumble in beauty unseen ; made green 
and beautiful by spring's soft colors, clothed in 
the splendor of autumn's gold and vermilion, or 
majestic with the snow-covered pines and bare- 
branched trees, sparkling in the winter's sun- 
shine. 

If you live near a river or the ocean, you have 
constant variety of scenery, for neither mount- 
ains, rivers, or oceans are less variable in their 
moods than we are, and even in dull, cheerless 
days, you see that in them which you may ad- 
mire, and in which you may find sympathy. If 
you are denied social pleasures, you may find 
much compensation in being surrounded by the 

138 



TIRED MOTHERS. 

pure, unselfish works of nature, which give 
much and exact little, and which never disap- 
point you. Though you may have none of 
these things, there are other resources for rest 
and pleasure and refining influence at your 
command. None are entirely without them. 
Look carefully into your life and surroundings, 
and see if there be not some source of joy and 
gratitude which you have hitherto overlooked. 
The source of the spring is not always apparent, 
and we may regard only as a common water- 
course or a pool of muddy water what, after 
the debris and dirt are cleared away, may prove 
to be a never-failing supply of pure water ; and 
there are some springs which lie deep under the 
surface. There are many springs of comfort in 
your life, if you will find them. 

You ought not to be so tired. God does not 
intend that each day's burden should be heavier 
than you can easily bear. He gives strength 
and help for each day's needs. You can be 

139 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

happy to-day, can you not ? Or if this is one of 
the dark days, you can be patient and brave ? 
Well, that IS enough. To-morrow will bring its 
own strength and resources. You need not 
now take up to-morrow. God does not work 
miracles in our behalf, but He has arranged 
everything so that much help and comfort will 
come to us every day in easy, natural wa3's ; 
and it is wrong for us not to accept what He 
gives and turn it to best account. Trees, flow- 
ers, grass, birds, sunshine, bright clouds, the 
wonderful blue sky ought to be to us a contin- 
ual delight ; the love of husband and children, 
a never-failing source of joy and thankfulness; 
the Bible a city of refuge. 

There is a bright side to everything, no mat- 
ter how dark the other side may be. We are 
never so badly off but that we might be worse 
off. Somebody looks upon us as fortunate. 

Much unhappiness comes from envying those 
whom we consider in better circumstances than 
T40 



TIRED MOTHERS, 

ourselves, and trying to strain to their standard. 
How senseless, when none are so high but that 
somebody is higher, till you reach the highest, 
who are rarely happy. Be content. God rules. 
He can place you higher if He choose. Look 
upon your position and all that you have as 
God-given, and do not overlook any of His gifts, 
nor dishonor Him by believing that He has be- 
stowed upon you the thorns, and upon some one 
else the roses. Sweet and bitter, roses and 
thorns for all, God-given. 

In many instances where the care of your own 
family becomes a hardship, it is self-imposed. 
You are in the dull routine because you do not 
try to get out of it. You are overworked be- 
cause you improve no opportunity to play. You 
are nervous because you shut yourself up too 
much in the house, keep your rooms too warm 
and badly ventilated. You wait on your chil- 
dren when they should be early taught to help 
you and each other. You fret too much if John- 

141 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

ny's clothes are torn op soiled, or if he shows no 
love for cleanliness, and you are forced to urge 
him to wash his face and hands, and brush his 
hair. You allow many trivial things to annoy 
you, when nothing less than an earthquake or an 
avalanche should move a mother. 

What if the baby does fall off the bed and 
bump his head. Babies are always bumping 
their heads. What if Charlie tells a falsehood. 
It is not a sure sign that he will grow up a liar. 
Children are not born perfect, and there is no 
end to their hurts and bruises. 

Mothers would be less tired if they were more 
sensible. Think of the time worse than wasted 
in the preparation of foods which every member 
of the family would be better without. Of the 
unnecessary time and labor spent upon the chil- 
dren's clothes. Of the many things done for 
mere show, or to do as others do, which add to 
no one's happiness or comfort. No matter if you 

do differently from every one else in the world, 
142 



TIRED MOTHERS, 

if you do right, and make your home a true 
home. Live for comfort, and the good you can 
do. Dress your children plainly, that you and 
they need not be constantly fretted about their 
clothes. Furnish your house simply and com- 
fortably, and have nothing that you must shut up 
in a dark room. 

There are mothers who are tired because they 
have no clothing to mend, no stockings to darn, 
and who would give worlds for just such a pile 
of mending as that to which you sit down with a 
feeling of discontent; for disorder in the house, 
for the tracks of soiled shoes on the floor, or 
prints of little fingers on the window-pane. 
Think of this, and imagine if you can what 
your life would be if you had none of these 
things ; if the patience-trying little ones were all 
silent forever, and there were no more noise in 
the house ; and put love and cheerfulness into 
all you do for them ; thus will the dullest work 
receive a brightness. 

M3 



tD 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

Be careful not to become tired with imaginary 
troubles, lest God say of you, " There is my dear 
child to whom I have given many blessings. She 
does not appreciate them. She is continually 
clamoring for more, continually dissatisfied, and 
will not enjoy her husband, her children, her 
health, her home. She has no real troubles, but 
she thinks her lot which thousands might well 
envy her, a hard one, and is ungrateful and self- 
ish. I cannot allow this. She is not making 
ready for heaven. Her soul is not growing. She 
is blind, and nothing will open her eyes but real 
trouble. Much as it grieves me to do it, I must 
take away something of that she hath already, 
instead of giving her more." 

Oh, cannot you. open your eyes to see what 
God is doing for you without chastisement being 
needful, and be gratefully happy, and rest in His 
love? 

Oh, mothers, cannot you feel His love sur- 
rounding you, smoothing your path, warding off 
144 



TIRED MOTHERS. 

from you dangers, giving you peace and quiet in 
your daily pursuits ? And cannot you see the 
great glory of God, the Creator of all, in every- 
thing around you? The trees whisper it, the 
wind carries the message on swift wings, the sun 
mirrors it and sends it in one great flash of light 
and splendor all over the earth. The boundless 
blue sky in silence glorifies Him. And will you 
not glorify Him by your life ? 

And are you so tired, and so much absorbed 
in sordid cares that you cannot teach your sons 
to avoid the selfishness, the worldliness, the 
wickedness everywhere to be seen in the outside 
world? Do you so shut out all the beauty and 
all the glory from your life that the lessons they 
learn from you are only those of unblessed work 
and unhallowed care ? 

Open the windows of your soul and let in the 

glory of earth and sky; let in God's love, and 

God's strength. Then there will be a soft, glad 

light reflected from you on all the household, and 

lo 145 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

joy and beauty will go hand in hand with work 
and care, and God will be glorified even in the 
most uninteresting bits of labor, and you will be 
weary only to rest again, to rest in Him who 
toiled patiently and sweetly to do His Father's 
will. 

If there are days when it seems next to im- 
possible to accomplish anything — and who does 
not have such days? — when physical energy is 
wanting, and you weary yourself with vain efforts 
to overcome your inefficiency, be quiet and 
patient with yourself, as you would be with the 
lame or blind, and do not try to do so much as 
on other days when the nerves are strong and 
the head clear. 

Do not make life too weighty a matter, nor 
drag your feet in the mire when you should be 
walking lightly and cheerfully in the sunshine of 
God's love. 

It is true that the cares of life often rise up as 
a cloud between us and God, but He is on one 
146 



I 



TIRED MOTHERS, 

side of it, and we know He is there, and we are 
on the other side, and He knows it, and there is 
but a thin, shadowy cloud between us which will 
be wholly dissipated by a few tears, or scattered 
to the four corners of the heavens by a single 
breath of God. And if we are not always in a 
religious mood, or in the active service of God, 
we need not grieve because our lives seem to 
have no high purpose. 

Who serves Him more truly than a faithful 
mother, whether it be in tying baby's shoes 
twenty times a day patiently, or in teaching him 
** Our Father," on his knees with clasped hands 
by her side ? 

God places a higher value upon the little acts of 
every-day life than we do ; and everything done 
to make the home neat and cheerful, is precious 
in His sight ; and we are serving Him *as truly in 
performing the work He daily gives us, as when 
we sing His praise, or teach in His nam.e, or 
pray on bended knee. All day long there may 

147 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

be going up to Him the sweet incense of love, 
in patient well-doing, and we may have, with all 
our cares, the spirit of love and praise. 

If we could realize the sacredness and magni- 
tude of our work, if the wonderful mother-love 
could be always uppermost in our hearts, how it 
would lift us above our petty, w^earing cares. How 
it would increase our tenderness and patience. If 
we could see in these troublesome, exacting 
boys or girls, angels of to-morrow, or next day, 
or next month perhaps, with what sweetness and 
tender yearning would reproofs be given ; for 
many who are our troublesome children to-day, 
ere another year rolls round will be our angel 
boys and girls in heaven. 

Do not let the hurry and worry of life drive 
Christ out of your heart. Let Him come into 
the privacy of home. There is where He is 
needed most. There is where He likes best to 
be, close by us, to comfort and to bless us, and 
to lift from us our burdens. He was tired, so 
148 



TIRED MOTHERS, 

tired often. And the whole world is tired. But 
there will come a long day of rest. Happy will it 
be for us then if we are tired to some good pur- 
pose. ^' Come unto me all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Here, 
as well as there, will He fulfil this promise. 
Precious rest in the bosom of Jesus, precious in- 
deed the rest which comes to mind and body 
after work well done to His honor and glory, 
one smile of whom is worth more than the ap- 
probation of the whole world. 

Then, mothers, do not be discouraged. The 
King of Heaven is on your side. However poor 
you may be, however humble your lot, you are 
queens, and home is your domain. Queens have 
many cares and burdens, and much responsi- 
bility. Their subjects do not always appreciate 
what is done for their good, and find much fault. 
But who in this world is appreciated ? Even 
Jesus was not ; and if He, the Son of God the 

sinless One, did not find this world smooth and 

149 



HERE AXD THERE A LEAF. 

joyous, if He did not find love, appreciation, 
everything to His mind, need we expect to 
find it ? 

Ah no ! Look to Him ! Look away from your 
cares. Cast them upon Him ! He came into 
the world to bear our burdens, and shall His 
life and death avail nothing to you ? 

God wishes you to serve Him just where you 
are, and not in some far-ofif, imagined condition 
or circumstance. The ways of serving Him are 
as varied and multiplied as the varied lives of 
thousands. We are not all called to be mission- 
aries. We cannot all be regular attendants at 
the prayer-meeting, or the benevolent society. 
Some of us may be compelled often to absent 
ourselves from public worship. The world may 
judge us by our outward religious life, by the fre- 
quency with which we are seen in these places; 
but God looks on the heart, on the mind that is 
in us, at the patient, untiring love which makes 
sweet the home life. 
150 



TIRED MOTHERS. 

Would we be so tired if we could realize that 
when we cheerfully and lovingly perform our al- 
lotted tasks, we are pleasing God ? And if we are 
pleasing Him, what higher, more restful life 
can there be on earth ? To please the Omnis- 
cient One, how wonderful the privilege. To be 
in harmony with His will each day, how delight- 
ful. No doubt we shall realize fully this blessed- 
ness in Heaven, but cannot we reach much 
nearer to it here ? 

There are thousands of hungry, sin-burdened 
and weary ones crying out with great longings 
and tears and reaching out after God, "We 
can, we can, we must, we will ! " 

And the answer sweetly comes from millions 
of angelic voices around the heavenly throne 
joining with the Lamb in crying, '^ Whosoever 
will let him come ! " 

151 



InniB, IttKtt IniEL 

"^TEXT to the desire to serve God perfectly, 
^^ a true man's purest ambition is to have a 
home, a loving wife, and dutiful children. With- 
out a home a man is adrift in the world, and he 
never knows whither the rough and variable 
winds of fortune will carry him. A home is to 
him a haven of rest, a city of refuge, a sanctuary, 
a place where love reigns. Safe from all intrud- 
ers, from all greed of gain, from all forms of self- 
ishness and the unjust judgments of men, he is 
understood, appreciated, beloved. He is at 
home. 

To a woman also is it a joy and highest honor 

to be queen-wife, and queen-mother in her own 

domain. *^ Her children arise up and call her 

blessed ; her husband also, and he praiseth her.'* 

152 



J 



HOME, SWEET HOME. 

There is nothing in life that brings more joy 
and comfort than a happy home. But while we 
surround it with beauty and poetry, and loving 
tenderness, we must not forget that we have 
something to do to create such a home. 

Our homes are not sent down to us from 
Heaven. They are very earthly things, and 
largely what we make them. There is no rela- 
tion so tenderly watched over by our Heavenly 
Father, as the home relation, but He does not 
interfere with our arrangements by any super- 
natural power. It is for the husband and wife 
to determine whether or not their home shall be 
lo them and to their children all that a home 
can be. 

In the first place, the marriage relation should 
not be entered into for any reason but that of 
mutual and enduring love. There are no circum- 
stances which excuse a breaking away from this 
rule. No one should be so ignorant of what 
married life means as to hazard his life-long hap- 

153 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

pin ess by a loveless marriage. The relation is 
too close, too sacred to admit of any reason for 
entering into it exclusive of this one. The disci- 
pline too unlike anything else one has experienced 
for him to pass through it unscathed unless love is 
the sceptre wielded in the home. Even then there 
are many misunderstandings and many hours of 
unhappiness before the two, unlike in tempera- 
ment, with opinions which clash, and habits 
formed which they do not like to give up, can live 
together in harmony. 

Many persons look forward to the first years 
of marriage as the happiest of their lives ; and if 
they are disappointed, as they are almost sure to 
be, they conclude they have made a life-long 
mistake. They do not know that at first they 
are one only in sight of the law, and that it will 
require long years to make them one in reality, 
unless they begin their united life in a different 
manner from that which is usual. Strange as it 
may seem, in many instances husband and wife 
154 



HOME, SWEET HOME. 

are not together three days before unwise or 
unkind words have been spoken about some- 
thing (5f Uttle consequence. " I am right and 
you are wrong"; ^^ My way is best, and you 
must conform to it," is the principle upon which 
they begin ahnost unconsciously a life which 
they expect to be bliss itself, and thus strife is 
engendered. 

One likes to have the sunshine come into the 
house, the other cannot endure it. One wishes 
to have the curtains looped up, the other will 
have them hung without looping. One wishes 
to have the table in the middle of the room, the 
other will have it at one side. There are many 
trivial differences of taste and opinion of which 
they did not think before marriage, and they are 
surprised to find they are so unlike each other. 
And by reason of these differences they begin to 
go asunder, instead of becoming daily more 
closely united together 

They expected everything in their home to ad- 

155 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF. 

just itself beautifully with no jarring. They love 
each other too well to have even a shadow come 
between them. They do not realize how easy it 
is to be selfish, nor how imperceptibly the shad- 
ows fall. Neither have they any idea, until they 
have lived together a year or two, how many 
things must be yielded on the part of both or 
compromised between them ; or how important 
it is that each one should be allowed individuality 
in character and life. It is by no means neces- 
sary to happiness that husband and wife should 
be alike. On the contrary they should be unlike ; 
that what is wanting in one may be possessed by 
the other, that the two may make a perfect whole. 
If they but knew these things, they would 
study from the hour of marriage to be magnani- 
mous, and so avoid many mistakes and regrets. 
It is better to begin by making love a practical 
thing, than to cherish it as a mere sentiment. 
Practical love bears and forbears and covers a 
multitude of faults. It is patient and reasonable, 
1^6 



I 



HOME, SWEET HOME. 

and IS never oftener called upon to exercise its 
graces than in the first year of married life. Why 
not accept the fact and act in accordance with 
it ? This is the only way to realize the happiness 
anticipated. Even then the first years are only 
the beginning of an always-growing fitness for 
each other, followed by increasing joy in each 
other and a more enduring love, so that the last 
years are the best. 

Nothing is so much needed in the home as a 
careful deference to each other's wishes, espec- 
ially in little things \ but this must always be 
mutual. Too much generosity on one hand en- 
courages selfishness on the other; too much 
yielding by one, a sort of tyranny from the other 
— so that the only safe way is for each to try to 
outdo the other in Httle acts of kindness. 

If a husband wishes his wife to do anything for 
him, she should do it promptly ; no matter how 
busy she may be with her own affairs — even 
though it be so trifling a thing as to mend a 

157 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

glove or sew on a button. He has annoyances 
enough in his business. He should have his 
home and everything pertaining to it quiet and 
orderly. It is his right. And everything she 
can do to make it so, she should not only wish 
to do or intend to do, but do. Make the home 
bright and cheerful. Throw open the shutters. 
Let in the sunshine, and let it fill the whole 
house with health and gladness. Never mind 
the faded carpets and furniture. Sunshine is an 
absolute necessity in every home ; fine carpets 
and fine furniture are not. Be sure that every 
detail of home is in accordance with common 
sense and the laws of health, no matter what 
others may say or do. 

Don't be afraid of the kitchen. There is no 
sensible man living who will not be made hap- 
pier and more comfortable by the knowledge 
that his wife at least attends to everything. And 
if she sometimes makes the bread or the coffee, 
it is all the sweeter to him. 

158 



HOME, SWEET HOME, 

A man likes to have his wife a natural woman. 
A woman of nature Hkes to be efficient, indus- 
trious, and domestic ; and it is not for her neigh- 
bors or her friends to dictate as to what she may 
or may not do in her own home, and still retain 
her dignity as a woman. The false and unnatural 
idea prevalent that a woman cannot lift her hand 
to any sort of work even in her own home with- 
out degrading herself to the position of a menial, 
causes much discomfort and unhappiness in many 
homes. 

Away with such notions ! Away with such 
absolute folly ! Young women, do not for one 
moment believe it. Be true women. Prepare 
yourselves to be helpful in the time of need, 
which may come at any hour. Keep your 
muscles strong and your minds healthy by tak- 
ing exercise in your own homes. 

If you do train Bridget and Susan and John so 
perfectly that everything goes like clock-work 
without your supervision, the time may come 

159 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

when you will be for days without John, or Brid- 
get, or Susan ; and, unless you have the tact and 
the knowledge necessary to fall in and help fill 
the gap, the whole household will be thrown into 
confusion; housekeeping will be declared unen- 
durable, the remaining servants will be over- 
worked and ill-humored, and things go on very 
badly because the mistress' delicate hands must 
not be soiled with work, and because it would be 
a disgrace to be seen with broom or duster in 
hand in one's own household. 

A woman cannot be strong without exercise. 
She cannot be graceful and attractive without 
strength. Why not take exercise in a way to be 
useful ? Why not combine the useful with the 
beautiful in your life, as do the works of nature ? 
Cannot you fulfil your mission as perfectly as 
an inanimate tree ? Cannot you grow in loveli- 
ness and intelligence and at the same time make 
yourself indispensable to the household by actual 
service? Work is not incompatible with the 

highest refinement. 

t6o 



HOME, SWEET HOME. 

How much more honorable to spend your Hfe 
in putting forth actual effort to some good pur- 
pose than to idly fold your hands to enjoy the 
comforts provided by the hard work and anxious 
care of your husband. Be efficient. Be help- 
ful. Learn how to adjust things when they are 
out of joint. Learn how to cover up and smooth 
over things that will go wrong sometimes not- 
withstanding all your care. Make light of slight 
annoyances and mishaps. Be patient with your 
servants and your children. Keep absolute con- 
trol of yourself. 

It is a grand thing to be a noble woman. A 
woman cannot be noble without being symmet- 
rically developed. Strive for that kind of de- 
velopment. Put forth your powers in every direc- 
tion that they may grow by exercise. You do 
not know what influence you may have in your 
home, not in an open and demonstrative way, 
but by the purity and dignity of your life, and 

the quiet leading of true love. 

i6i 



HERE AN^D THERE A LEAF, 

Let your first thought be for your husband's 
happiness, not in a servile way, because he de- 
mands it, but because he is more to you than all 
the world besides. Let interests outside of your 
home be secondary. Home first, always. That 
is your province. It rests largely with you to 
make it a happy home. 

On the part of the husband there is much to 
be done that everything may go on happily. 

If your wife does not meet your expectations 
in every particular, do not begin at once to try 
to make her over according to your own model. 
It is moderately certain she will not be made 
over. Be patient with her, and treat her in a 
manner to develop her best qualities ; cultivate 
those things in which she is deficient by showing 
her how greatly they would add to your happi- 
ness, and by encouraging her to persevere in 
things which may be more difficult for her than 
you realize. You have not married a woman of 
experience. However excellent her training at 
162 



HOME, SWEET HOME. 

home may have been, she is in a position alto- 
gether new and strange, and which demands 
much of which she has hitherto known nothing. 

Be considerate and affectionate, helpful in lit- 
tle ways as every thoughtful husband knows how 
to be, and almost before you know it, she will be 
like the picture you had in mind of the sweetest 
woman on earth, and the most accomplished 
wife. Be careful not to find fault. Fault-finding 
and hasty words are out of place where love 
reigns. Keep your sweetest smiles, your most 
patient manner, the most noble expression of 
yourself for your wife and children. It is not 
easy to do this when you come home weary ; 
but make the effort, and you will find yourself 
well repaid for it. See how quickly your wife's 
face will brighten and how thoroughly she will 
appreciate your endeavor to throw off your cares 
and enjoy your home. 

Let every evening be even more delightful 
than those so highly prized in her society before 

163 



HERE AND THERE A LEAF, 

your marriage. Have a romp with the children 
for half an hour before they go to bed. It will rest 
you and delight them. On no account bury your- 
self selfishly in a newspaper for the whole even- 
ing. Read aloud, if at all, while your wife 
darns the stockings and repairs the rent clothing 
of the children. 

Share with each other your burdens and per- 
plexities. It will make them easier to bear, and 
strengthen and purify your love for each other. 
Do not allow selfishness in any form to creep 
into your home. Teach the children early to 
seek the happiness of others before their own. 
With all the members of the household obe3'ing 
the law of love, how happy will be the home, 
and how pure and strong its ties. 

Let the family altar be erected early in the 
home, that God's blessing may rest upon it. For 
" Except the Lord build the house, they labor in 
vain that build it ; except the Lord keep the 
city the watchman waketh but in vain." 
164 



HOME, SWEET HOME. 

All this may seem prosy, commonplace, and 
uninviting, especially to the young ; but why not 
look at things as they are ? Much of the un- 
happiness in homes comes from false estimates. 
That any discordant note should enter into the 
harmony of two souls whose bliss is heaven 
itself cannot be thought of for a moment. But 
life in all its phases is material, and is hard to be 
dealt with. And while we need all the poetry, 
all the romance, all the philosophy we can com- 
mand to make life cheerful, we need far more 
the grace of God in the heart to fortify us against 
the surprises and disappointments which are sure 
to come at first, to be followed by a better un- 
derstanding of each other, and a purer love which 
will bear and forbear with sweetness and patience 
'^ till death do us part." 

165 



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